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CfiEHttGHX DEPOSIT. 



THE HISTORY 



OF THE 



San Francisco Disaster 



AND 



Mount Vesuvius Horror 

BV 

CHARLES EUGENE BANKS 

AND 

OPIE READ 

Two of America's leading Authors. 

A Complete and Authentic Account of the Terrible Calamity 
that befell the City of the Golden Gate, Stricken by 
Earthquake and Devastated by Fire. Described and 
Penned by Eye-witnesses and those who Worked to 
Relieve the Suffering. 

A Vivid Account of the Eruption of Mount Vesuvius and other 
great Historical Catastrophes which have Destroyed 
Thousands of Lives and Laid Whole Countries in Ruin. 

Illustrated with Photographic Scenes 

of the Great Disasters and Stricken Districts. 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

MAY 11 1906 

. Copyright Entry 
Ma/XL ItjcC 
CKASS Ct. 'XXc, No, 

' COPY 3, 



Copyright, 1906 

by 
C. E. Thomas. 




PREFACE. 

Strike one section of the world a terrible blow and 
all other sections have their deepest sympathies imme- 
diately centered in that spot. It is this fact that keeps 
alive man's belief in the universal brotherhood of the 
race. 

A tragedy such as that which now overtops all 
others of its kind, and which in the short space of its 
action transformed San Francisco from the most beau- 
tiful American city into a wilderness of woe and deso- 
lation, must stir every human heart to deepest pity. 
In the soft dawn of the morning a series of seismic 
waves ran down the coast line from the north, their 
force culminating at San Francisco Bay. As a result 
more than one thousand lives were lost, several thou- 
sand men, women and children wounded, and three 
hundred thousand people rendered homeless. 

The scenes of terror that followed the breaking loose 
of so much force and fire in one spot cannot be real- 
ized by any single intelligence. To describe it in 
words would be to picture all that has ever been 
dreamed of Heaven and Hell. 

But the great throbbing heart of humanity that has 
felt this indescribable tragedy, the great Christian 
world listens for the voice that shall tell of the suffer- 
ing and sacrifice, the woe and the goodness born of 
that woe, the pathetic tale of the destruction of San 
Francisco. 



8 PREFACE 

Following close upon the eruption of Vesuvius on 
the other side of the world the San Francisco disaster 
found the country busy raising funds for the homeless 
Neapolitans. The Golden Gate city was engaged in 
this work when of a sudden it became the subject of 
the world's bounty. 

And well has the world responded. The tremors of 
the earth under the devastated city were not stilled 
when trains and boats were on their way to relieve the 
distress caused by this unparalleled catastrophe. And 
the energy born of pity and brotherhood is not ephem- 
eral; it is a continuous force and will not cease to act 
while there is one homeless family, or one destitute 
person within the ruined circle of what was until this 
disaster the happiest of American cities. 

From such great disasters man discovers his own 
helplessness. With all his ingenious inventions he is 
more helpless than the wild animals he affects to de- 
spise. For they have an instinctive sense of approach- 
ing danger, a faculty scarcely known to man. It is 
the recognition of this truth that moves men to lean 
upon one another; to accept kindness without ques- 
tion and to in turn be helpful. The selfish have the 
most cause to fear, for they cannot know what hour 
fate may strip them of everything and leave them 
naked and destitute. 

Nature does nothing by rule. All creation is one 
continual surprise. A leaf is formed and the, pattern 
broken so that its exact counterpart will never appear 
again. But Truth, the great underlying principle upon 
which is formed the character of man, is unalterable. 
And out of that Truth comes the quality of helpfulness. 



PREFACE 9 

It is this world-wide quality of sympathy shown in- 
stantly upon the reports that San Francisco was being 
destroyed, that softens the horror of that unequalled 
calamity, and makes the record of the disaster a 
prophecy of good, rather than evil. It is the purpose 
of this book to give not only a correct account of the 
destruction of San Francisco, but of the super-generous 
efforts of the world to feed and clothe the hundreds of 
thousands of homeless and destitute, to give cheer and 
encouragement to the wounded and helpless, and to 
assist in rebuilding upon the beautiful bay a greater 
and more magnificent city. 

The authors wish to acknowledge the great debt of 
gratitude they are under to the officials in charge at 
San Francisco, the press and telegraph, as well as the 
courtesy of hundreds of individuals who assisted in 
the gathering of information to make this book com- 
plete and accurate. Other writers besides those given 
credit in the text, who have lent great assistance, are 
Mr. Charles Ulrich, Mr. Edward W. Pickard, and Mr. 
Samuel C. Andrews, the latter having passed a large 
part of his life among the great volcanoes. 

To tell the correct story of the great earthquake has 
not been all our ambition, but to incorporate in these 
pages the sublime spirit of America. It is not alone 
the cities of the United States that give utterance to 
the spirit of idealism that is making the nation great. 
It is in the farm and the garden as well as the mill, the 
store and workshop. It is this spirit that will rebuild 
and beautify San Francisco. 

THE AUTHORS. 







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LOOKING DOWN KEARNY STREET TO MARKET. 

This view shows the Claus Spreckels building in the back- 
ground. The disaster left it all a mass of ruins. 



DEDICATED 

to 

SYMPATHETIC HUMANITY 

WHICH AGAIN IN A SPONTANEOUS 

OUTBURST OF UNSTINTED LOVE HAS PROVED 

THAT MERCY 

IS A LIVING FOUNTAIN IN THE 

HEART OF MAN AND THAT 

ALL HEARTS ARE 

ONE 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

DESTRUCTION OF SAN FRANCISCO 

Golden Gate City Wiped Out by Earthquake and Fire— First Shock 
Comes in Mysterious Twilight of the Dawn — Whole Population Rush 
Half-Clad Into the Streets to Find Themselves Helpless in the 
Presence of Fate — Great Sky Scrapers Topple to Ruin, Burying 
Hundreds in the Debris — Immense Conflagration Completes " The 
Wreck of Matter and the Crash of Worlds"— The Most Beautiful 
and Historic City of America Swept Into Oblivion 23 

CHAPTER 1 1 

AWFUL RESULTS OF FIRST SHOCKS 

Earthquake Topples Over Great Buildings — Thousands Buried in 
Debris — Cataclysm Comes Without Warning — Magnificent City Hall 
Wrecked — Terror-stricken Population Rushes Into the Streets — 
Poorer Residence Districts Razed — Famous Cliff House and Sutro 
Baths Escape 30 

CHAPTER III 

FLAMES SWEEP THE DOOMED CITY 

Conflagrations Break Out at Scores of Points — Fire Department Help- 
less — Water Mains Broken by Quake — Many Buildings Blown Up by 
Dynamite in Effort to Check Flames — Government Troops Batter 
Down Blocks With Cannon — Fire Spreads Remorselessly to Resi- 
dence Districts Until Almost the Entire City is Consumed......... 38 

CHAPTER I V 

REIGN OF TERROR 

Mad Panic Seizes the Citizens — Martial Law is Proclaimed — General 
Fred Funston Takes Charge — Government and State Troops Patrol 
Streets — Shooting of Ghouls and Thieves — Hunger, Thirst and 
Fears of Epidemic — Lunatics From Shattered Asylum Tied to Trees 58 

CHAPTER V 

BRINGING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS 

Magnificent Work Done by General Funston and His Soldiers — Mad- 
dened Community Protected From Itself — Camps Established, Sani- 
tation Enforced, Food and Shelter Provided — Difficult Problems 
Vigorously Solved — Devotion of Mayor Schmitz and His Aids — 
Police and Militia Earn Praise — Restoration of More Normal Con- 
ditions 74 

CHAPTER V I 

THE HEART OF THE WORLD IS STIRRED 

Millions of Dollars for Relief of the Stricken City — Trains of Provisions 
Rushed From Sacramento and Los Angeles While the Fire Rages — 
The National Government Makes Available a Million Dollars for the 
Homeless — New York Subscribes $500,000 the First Day — Chicago, 
Remembering Its Own Holocaust. Quickened to Heroic Action — 
Every City of the Country Swells the Relief Fund — Even the Poor 
Give Liberally from Their Slender Store — The Nations of the Earth 
Send Messages of Sympathy 89 

CHAPTER VII 

PEN PICTURES OF DESOLATION 

Scenes Amid the Ruins — Remnant of City Like Crescent Moon Set 
About Black Disk of Shadows — Doleful Streams of Refugees — 
Horrors Breed Insanity — Drunken Orgies Held by Denizens of "The 

15 



16 CONTENTS 

Barbary Coast" — Soldiers Sternly Enforce Martial Law — Eflsobedi- 
ence Brings Instant Death 101 

CHAPTER VIII 

DEEDS OF HEROISM AND VALOR 

Personal Experiences by Survivors — How It Feels to Be Awakened by 
an Earthquake — A Woman Writer Makes Her Way Through the 
Still Rocking City — Millionaires Breakfast on the Grass Before the 
Ruins of Their Palaces — Automobiles Shriek and Toot Among the 
Falling Buildings , 115 

CHAPTER IX 

TALES TOLD BY SURVIVORS 

Guests Who Escaped Safely From the Hotels Relate Thrilling Experi- 
ences — Saw Buildings Sway, Collapse and Burst Into Flames — Mad 
Rush to the Ferry Docks — Grand Opera Stars in Deadly Peril — Spend 
Night in Open Air Camps with Other Refugees — Olive Fremstad, 
Refusing to Flee, Aids Injured and Destitute — Soldier Shoots Man 
to Save Him from Death in Flames 133 

CHAPTER X 

GREAT UNIVERSITY WRECKED 

Earthquake Shocks Lay Low Beautiful Buildings of Stanford University 
at Palo Alto — Pride of Golden State in Ruins — Students Are Killed 
and Injured — Story of the Founding of the Institution of Learning — 
University of California at Berkeley Not Damaged 145 

CHAPTER XI 

CHINATOWN IS DEVASTATED 

District Familiar to the World's Travelers Falls Prey to Quake and 
Flame — Hundreds of Orientals Perish and Throw Themselves to 
Death — Famous Joss Houses, Theaters and Crowded Rookeries 
Collapse — Panic Stricken Chinese Have No Time to Placate the 
Dragon of Evil in Earth's Center 155 

CHAPTER X 1 1 

NOTED LANDMARKS GONE 

Palaces of Pioneers, Great Hotels and Famous Buildings Destroyed in 
the Cataclysm — Stanford, Flood, Huntington and Crocker Mansions 
Wiped Out — Well Known Restaurants and Bohemian Resorts 
Burned — Fine Theaters, Newspaper Offices and Mammoth Depart- 
ment Stores Go Down in Ruin — Government Mint Alone is Saved. . 165 

CHAPTER XIII 

RUIN OF SAN JOSE AND SANTA ROSA 

Two of California's Prettiest Cities Destroyed by the Earthquake — 
Business Districts Leveled by the Shock and Dwellings Shattered — 
Flames Sweep the Wreckage — Many Persons Perish — Fatal Land- 
slide on Loma Prieta Mountain — Score of Towns Along Coast 
Suffer Severely 175 

CHAPTER X I V 

DESTRUCTION OFTEN PREDICTED 

San Francisco Many Times Shaken by Earthquakes — Geologists Had 
Expected Disaster Because of City's Dangerous Location — Two 
Hundred and Fifty Shocks in Fifty Years, Though Loss of Life 
Was Infrequent — Dire Prophecies of Seers — Serious Fires in Golden 
Gate City's Earlier Days 186 



CONTENTS , 17 

CHAPTER XV 

IMMENSE FINANCIAL LOSSES 

Property Destroyed in San Francisco Alone Valued at $400,000,000— 
Insurance Companies Liable for Over $100,000,000 — European Con- 
cerns Are Hard Hit — Prompt Payment on Liberal Lines, Involving 
Assessments on Stockholders — Property Damage in Other Cities 
Shaken by Earthquake Estimated at $12,000,000 , 201 

CHAPTER X V I 

THE RISE OF A NEW CITY 

Rebuilding of San Francisco Assured Before Its Ashes Are Cool — 
Indomitable Spirit of Pioneers Arises to Meet the Crisis — Quick 
Revival of Hope and Confidence — Reconstructed City Will be Hand- 
somer and Safer Than the Old — Architect Burnham's Plans for 
Magnificent Metropolis Adopted — Beautiful Boulevards and Parks. . 209 

CHAPTER XVII 

GREAT THEATRICAL BENEFITS 

Unparalleled Performance Given in the Bernhardt Tent in Chicago — 
Mighty Concourse of Stage Stars, Including Bernhardt, Willard, 
Sothern and Julia Marlowe — Thousands Under Canvas — Actors' 
Fund Benefit Given for San Francisco Sufferers — Countless Per- 
formances All Over the Country Swell the Monster Relief Fund 231 

CHAPTER XVIII 

WHAT 'FRISCO HAS LOST 

It Was a Group of Individuals, but a Single Soul — Its Early Lack of 
Books Inspired a New Literature — Some Characteristics of the Old 
San Francisco — An Englishman's Experience With John Phoenix, 
the First American Humorist to Gain Fame — San Francisco Com- 
pared to Chicago — It Was a Forest of Arden That Must Now 
Become a Steel Metropolis 243 

CHAPTER XIX 

EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO 

First Settlement by Spanish Missionaries in the Year 1776 — A Mission 
of Mercy — The Early Days of '49 — Growth and Development of the 
Golden Gate — Literature and Art — Oriental Trade — Wonderful De- 
velopment of Industries — Agricultural Period — Great Fruit Grow- 
ing — Pre-eminent for Its Wines 253 

CHAPTER X X 

THE PARIS OF AMERICA 

San Francisco Was One of the Most Beautiful Cities in the World and 
the Pride of the Pacific Coast — Handsome Buildings, Hotels, City 
Hall, Magnificent Residences, Beautiful Churches and Parks the 
Delight of Every Visitor — Nob Hill, the Home of the Comstock 
Kings, Art, Refinement and Riches— Growth of the City Phenomenal 
During the Agricultural and Manufacturing Periods Which Suc- 
ceeded the Golden Age — Business Receives Impetus by Declaration 
of War With Spain— Rivalry of Other Coast Cities 269 

CHAPTER XXI 

THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO 

The Golden Gate at Sunset— A Harbor Sufficient to Float the Navies 
of the World— Panoramic View From the Coast Superb— Flowers 
of a Thousand Hues Bloom Upon the Hillsides— Winter Scenes the 
Most Charming— The Great Ferry— A Vision of Loveliness 281 



18 CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXII 

GOLDEN GATE PARK 

Chief Pride and Joy of San Francisco — Built on Sand Dunes — Grand 
Pleasure Ground for the People — Beautiful Trees and Flowers, Con- 
servatories, Aviaries, Japanese Garden, Museum and Music Stand — 
Great Celtic Cross^Cliff House and Sutro Baths 293 

CHAPTER XXIII 

CITY OF BEAUTIFUL SUBURBS 

Country Around San Francisco Like a Great Garden, Dotted With 
Charming Towns — Lovely Hills and Valleys of San Mateo County — 
Magnificent View from Mt. Tamalpais, the Watch Tower of the Pa- 
cific — Oakland the Prosperous and Berkeley the Fascinating 305 

CHAPTER XXIV 

WHY SAN FRANCISCO IS GREAT 

Story of the City's Awakening to New Life and Prosperity After the 
Spanish War — Gateway to the Orient — What the Acquisition of the 
Philippines and Opening of China Mean to It — Metropolis of a Mar- 
velously Rich but Strangely Isolated Country — Natural Resources 
and Climate Unsurpassed 314 

CHAPTER XXV 

VOLCANIC UPHEAVAL IN ITALY 

The Eruption of Vesuvius of April, 1906, Destructive to Life and Prop- 
erty — Calabrian Earthquakes Foreshadow the Catastrophe — Panic 
Follows Outbreak — Bosco Trecase Overwhelmed and Destroyed — 
People Flee From the Destroyer in Terror — Pathetic Scenes Wit- 
nessed — Cone of Vesuvius Collapses 337 

CHAPTER XXVI 
Ancient History of Vesuvius » 352 

CHAPTER XXVII 

THE VOLCANO KRAKATOA IN JAVA 

The Most Terrible Volcanic Explosion in the World's History 357 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE, ANNIHILATED 

Story of the Swift Destruction of a Beautiful City in the Lesser 

Antilles 366 

CHAPTER XXIX 

VOLCANOES OF HAWAII 

Haleakala, Large Extinct Crater, and Mauna Loa, Most Active of Live 
Volcanoes • 374 

CHAPTER XXX 

Lesser Disasters in the United States 397 

CHAPTER XXXI 

How Earthquakes Affect the Globe 404 

CHAPTER XXXII 

SOME FACTS ABOUT VOLCANOES AND EARTHQUAKES 

Cause of Earthquakes and Volcanic Phenomena — "Downthrows" 422 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

LEGENDARY ROMANCES OF CRATERS 

The Mythology of Volcanoes 435 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

San Francisco From Nob Hill. 

Great Buildings Fall Prey to Flames. 

Looking Down Kearny Street to Market. 

San Francisco a Blazing Furnace. 

The Business District in Flames. 

The Fire on the First Day. 

In the Wholesale Fruit District. 

Scene on Mission Street. 

Wrecked by Earthquake and Doomed by Fire. 

Twenty Square Miles of Fierce Blazing Fire. 

In the Path of the Flames. 

The Magnificent City Hall Wrecked by Earthquake. 

The Burning of the City as Viewed from Nob Hill. 

Ruins of Grace Church. 

Chinatown — San Francisco. 

The Valencia Hotel Destroyed by Earthquake. 

Market Street Looking Toward the Ferry. 

Pine and Market Streets After the Earthquake. 

Fire, Death, Ruin and Desolation. 

Refugees in Golden Gate Park. 

Crack in the Earth in Golden Gate Park. 

Chinese Refugees Huddled in Washington Park. 

Fireman Fighting the Flames. 

Ruins of the Residence District. 

Market Street Before the Disaster. 

Looking Down Market Street. 

St. Francis Hotel and the Dewey Monument. 

Montgomery Street. 

City Hall. 

Crocker Building. 

The Court and Palm Gardens, Palace Hotel. 

Cliff House and Seal Rocks. 

Ferry Building. 

The United States Mint. 

The Chronicle — Examiner — Hall of Justice, and the Mills Building. 

A Joss House, Chinatown. 

Mechanics' Pavilion. 

19 



20 ILLUSTRATIONS 

Japanese Garden — Golden Gate Park. 

Inner Quadrangle — Stanford University. 

One of the Handsome Residence Districts on Nob Hill. 

Golden Gate Park— Four Views. 

Pioneer Building — Native Sons' Building. 

Odd Fellows — Hopkins Art Institute — Masonic Temple. 

Emanuel Synagogue — Calvary Presbyterian Church. 

St. Mary's Cathedral — St. John the Evangelist. 

Map of San Francisco and Vicinity. 

Map of Burnt District. 

Areas of Three Great Fires. 

Five Interesting Points Around San Francisco. 

San Francisco in 1848 After First Discovery of Gold. 

California in 1849 at the Height of the Gold Fever. 

Members of the California Theatre in 1876. 

Hon. Wm. Randolph Hearst. 

Andrew M. Lawrence. 

Men at the Head of the Relief Committees. 

The Famous Bernhardt Tent Performance. 

Interior of the Bernhardt Tent During Benefit Performance. 

Sarah Bernhardt and Other Stars. 

Eruption of Vesuvius. 

Vesuvius Raining Mud and Ashes. 

Vesuvius Pouring Forth Molten Lava. 

The Destruction Caused by Vesuvius. 

An Inactive Volcano. 

Mount Kilauea, Hawaii — Largest Active Volcano in the World. 




SAN FRANCISCO A BLAZING FURNACE. 



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Copyright 1906 by The American — Journal — Examiner. 

THE BUSINESS DISTRICT IN FLAMES. 

Scene from Telegraph Hill while the conflagration was at its worst. 



CHAPTER I 

DESTRUCTION OF SAN FRANCISCO 

Golden Gate City Wiped Out by Earthquake and Fire 
— First Shock Comes in Mysterious Twilight of the 
Dawn— Whole Population Rush Half-Clad Into the 
Streets to Find Themselves Helpless in the Pres- 
ence of Fate — Great Sky Scrapers Topple to Ruin, 
Burying Hundreds in the Debris — Immense Confla- 
gration Completes " The Wreck of Matter and the 
Crash of Worlds "—The Most Beautiful and His- 
toric City of America Swept Into Oblivion. 

On the morning of April 18, 1906, at 5:13 o'clock, 
San Francisco felt the first tremors of an earthquake 
shock that was destined to destroy the entire city. 

In that mysterious hour of twilight that precedes the 
dawn of a new day the earth under the city heaved 
and rocked like a troubled sea. 

Out of the deep sleep of the hour nearly four hun- 
dred thousand people awoke to see the result of a cen- 
tury of labor and genius crumble to dust and ashes as 
though touched by the magic wand of the Demon of 
Destruction. 

The Golden Gate that had hitherto been the hap- 
piest of American cities was suddenly transformed into 
a place of woe. Shut off from the outside world, it 
became at once a bleeding, crying wilderness of fear, 
horror and death. 

23 



24 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

The San Francisco of yesterday had been peculiarly 
free from disaster. No great fires had leveled her 
buildings or pestilence invaded her homes. In the 
■ early days of '49, when the discovery of gold in that 
region brought a heterogeneous mass of humanity to 
'Frisco, the wooden shacks which served at the time for 
business houses, and the tents that were the residences 
of the hardy adventurers of pick and shovel, were thrice 
swept away in conflagration. But the loss was 
ephemeral. The constant stream of gold that flowed 
into the town, and the liberality with which it was 
scattered soon overcame the temporary difficulties, and 
buildings of some pretentions went up at once over 
the ruins. 

But during the last generation, while the city has 
grown with marvelous strides, the elements have been 
kind. Several incipient earthquakes have kept the 
people in mind of the chained force that crouched under 
the shell of earth and rock on which the city was built; 
but these served only to accustom the people to the 
danger and " come out and have a shake with me," 
became a familiar form of invitation from citizens to 
their eastern friends. 

The New San Francisco rose white and graceful 
above the blue of the bay. Her palaces were the pride 
of the coast; her men brave, fearless, enterprising, 
noble and imaginative; her women beautiful, talented, 
and both men and women intensely human. 

And now, at a moment when the eastern sky was 
tender with the coming dawn, when all the winds were 
gentlest and all the skies softest, at the very birth of 
new hopes and aspirations and activities, it seemed 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 25 

doubly cruel that an unseen enemy should stretch out 
a hand of doom to blacken and torture and slay her 
sleeping children. 

Two friars, Francisco Paulo and Pedro Cambon, in 
1776, founded upon this magnificent bay a Catholic 
mission which became the cornerstone of the city of 
the Golden Gate. Could those holy fathers have 
looked into the future so far as to see the terror of 
this awful morning they must have hesitated and 
turned back with their little colony to Monterey, from 
whence they came. \But the peaceful bay with its sur- 
rounding hills robed in luxurious verdure gave no pre- 
sage of the unprecedented tragedy that one hundred 
and thirty years later was to be enacted there. 

No other American city is so rich in historical ro- 
mance as San Francisco. The bravest souls of the 
old world and the new have lived and loved, strug- 
gled and sacrificed, and left the marks of their indi- 
vidual characters upon the life of all that wonder- 
ful region. In the shadow of Mt. Shasta the gold 
seekers of '49 pitched their tents and inaugurated a 
commonwealth of camaraderie new in the history of 
the world, and simple as it was noble. Out of this 
spirit sprung a distinctly American literature which 
added to the illustrious names of the world those of 
Artemus Ward, Bret Harte, Joaquin Miller, Mark 
Twain, and many others who have followed in their 
footsteps. Here alone in all the Western World Art 
went hand in hand with Industry, and the physical 
expression of that dual life was San Francisco. 

And in one awful hour all the results of that aspira- 
tion, toil, energy and genius were swept into oblivion, 



26 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and where on yester-night had stood a thriving me- 
tropolis the morning beheld nothing but ruin and des- 
olation. 

For several days previous to the shock in San Fran- 
cisco Mt. Rainier, which rises like a mammoth moun- 
tain of snow over Puget Sound far to the north, had 
been in eruption. A pillar of smoke rose high into 
the clear air of that region from the apex of the moun- 
tain, and low rumblings were heard in the interior by 
isolated miners living on its side, and some fear was 
felt by the cities of Seattle and Tacoma. The recent 
Vesuvius horror caused speculation among scientists 
as to the probability of that far-away seismic cata- 
clysm being the cause of the Rainier disturbance. Yet 
little attention was paid to the matter. Rainier is sixty 
miles or more from any settlement, and while it is 
known to be of volcanic origin it has never been con- 
sidered dangerous. 

So the pillar of smoke to the far north that might 
have proved a warning grew and swelled and faded 
away to no purpose. Business and pleasure filled the 
minds and hearts of the people of the coast cities. Am- 
bition, greed, passion and hate fought the never-ending 
fight with courage, liberality, patience and love, and 
the everlasting blue of heaven looked on at the 
struggle. 

Man, believing himself master of his fate, laughed 
and danced, argued and coaxed, bought and sold, de- 
ceived and was deceived, until worn out with conflict- 
ing emotions he laid himself down to woo the " sleep 
that knits up the raveled sleeve of care " and fell 
a-dreaming of the triumphs of the morrow. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 27 

Such was the San Francisco that the mighty wave 
sweeping through the earth picked out of its bed and 
tossed whithersoever it would. It touched the giant 
steel structures and left them dangling like broken 
skeins of yarn above their cracked and broken foun- 
dations. Its waves swelled under the great Palace 
Hotel and its walls fell outward as though the build- 
ing were a paper toy. China Town, with its swarm 
of orientals, living half above and. half under ground, 
melted into dust and ashes, even as the visions of the 
opium smoker fade with his awaking. Statues that 
had been the pride of the city fell crashing to ruin. 
Churches waved their tall spires in the air and then 
threw them like giant spears far into the night. Tele- 
graph wires parted, water mains burst and fire and 
water mingled with elemental force to complete the 
destruction. 

And out into that groaning, tossing, tumbling chaos 
rushed three hundred thousand persons, a half naked 
and wholly crazed throng of humanity, praying, curs- 
ing, weeping, begging and denying, the children of 
men helpless in the presence of the forces of Nature 
they had thought to have made their slaves. The 
whole scene was so crowded with the huge and aston- 
ishing that anything beyond the simplest chronicle of 
the known facts would be worse than useless. From 
the dawn of the day of the first shock until the 
force of the military, working in conjunction with 
the civil authorities, had brought order out of chaos, 
there was not a moment within the confines of that 
poor, doomed city but had its own separate tragedy; 
its own act of heroism; its own sublime sacrifice. 



28 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

The San Francisco quake which shook to earth most 
of the principal buildings of the city, and the confla- 
gration which followed, conspire to make this catas- 
trophe the greatest in the history of the United States. 
In point of property loss and loss of life only three 
catastrophes in the annals of America can compare 
with it. They are the great Chicago fire of 1871, the 
Galveston hurricane and tidal wave of 1900, and the 
Johnstown flood. In the first 200 persons lost their 
lives and there was a property loss of $190,000,000. In 
the second 7,000 persons died and $30,000,000 worth of 
property was destroyed. In the Johnstown flood 
thousands of lives were lost and many millions of dol- 
lars in property destroyed. 

In San Francisco the loss of life will probably reach 
three thousand persons, and the loss of property amount 
to $500,000,000. One of the most beautiful cities in 
America is practically wiped out of existence. The 
two greatest forces known to man, vibration and fire, 
were joined and let loose to work this awful destruc- 
tion. And following these came the gaunt figures of 
starvation and disease to complete the horror of the 
situation. 

The earthquake, with its gigantic undulations that 
cause an indescribable sickness, passed, and fear was 
giving place to returning hope when the whole city 
seemed to burst into flames. The electric wires, torn 
from their fastenings had the loose ends flung high in 
the air to fall in a tangle, like lightning falling out of 
the sky. These set fire to hundreds of buildings at 
once and what the quake had spared the flames de- 
voured. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 29 

Like some terrible monster with the cunning of a 
devil the earthquake had in advance of the fire broken 
the water mains and the inhabitants could only stand 
dumbly by, looking upon the destruction of their beau- 
tiful city, and the total dissipation of individual for- 
tunes. It was like a nightmare from which they strove 
in vain to awake. 

While this supreme tragedy was being enacted in 
San Francisco, other coast cities were falling. For 
hundreds of miles along the coast the people felt the 
shock, and some towns, like Palo Alto with the Leland 
Stanford University buildings, and Santa Rosa, were 
utterly wiped out. Oakland, across the bay, lost heav- 
ily in art treasures, most of the statues and paintings 
on the walls and in the public and private buildings 
being ruined. All stone buildings were badly dam- 
aged, but there was no loss of life. Watsonville, Red- 
wood, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Jose, Monterey, Los 
Angeles, Hollister, Brawley and Berkeley were more 
or less damaged. The Spreckels' sugar factory at Sa- 
linas was leveled and many lives lost. As far away as 
Honolulu the shock was felt and for several days after 
the great quake lesser shocks were reported in other 
parts of California and Oregon. 



CHAPTER 1 1 

AWFUL RESULTS OF FIRST SHOCKS 

Earthquake Topples Over Great Buildings — Thou- 
sands Buried in Debris — Cataclysm Comes Without 
Warning — Magnificent City Hall Wrecked — Ter- 
ror-stricken Population Rushes Into the Streets — 
Poorer Residence Districts Razed— Famous Cliff 
House and Sutro Baths Escape. 

Just as San Francisco was waking to life and work, 
at 5:13 o'clock, the earth swayed, and much of the 
city fell in ruins. Nature had unchained one of her 
most dreaded forces of destruction. Great buildings of 
stone and iron toppled over and thousands of wooden 
structures were shattered. For almost five minutes 
the awful rolling motion continued. The inhabit- 
ants, shrieking and maddened by panic, fled from their 
homes into the streets, unclad, only to be buried in 
the debris of the crashing walls. A few moments 
later came another terrific shock to complete the work 
of devastation. Great crevices opened in the streets 
under the very feet of the fleeing people, who knew 
not where to turn for safety. The roar of falling 
buildings, the screams of the injured, explosions of 
gas mains and the instant breaking out of countless 
fires added to the fearful scene. 

The first shock came without warning save a slight 
reverberating roar, the motion of the earth being from 

30 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 31 

east to west. The upheaval was gradual, and for a 
few seconds it seemed as if the entire city was being 
lifted slowly upward, and then, after perhaps five sec- 
onds of the sickening rising sensation the shock in- 
creased in violence. 

Chimneys began to fall, the houses trembled vio- 
lently, swayed, and some fell with crashes. 

Buildings tottered on their foundations. Some rose 
and fell, and, when falling, the fronts or sides burst 
out as if from explosions, hurling tons of brick, mortar 
and timbers into the streets. Great rents opened in 
the ground. 

Those who remained indoors generally escaped 
death, except in cases where the entire buildings col- 
lapsed, although hundreds were hurt by falling plaster, 
pictures, or flying glass. 

Many of the city's finest buildings had fallen prey 
to the earthquake before the conflagration reached 
them. First in the list is the City Hall, a magnificent 
structure recently completed at a cost of $7,000,000, 
after twenty years of work. It was about the last 
building in San Francisco that might have been ex- 
pected to yield to an earthquake shock. It was a white 
stone building with extensive wings and a very fine 
dome. This great steel-ribbed dome was stripped of 
its covering by the shock; the magnificent pillars fell 
to the ground, immense fissures appeared in the walls 
and the entire building was wrecked in the space of 
three minutes. In Market Street, near the City Hall, 
the earth was ripped open and a chasm six feet wide 
was left to show the power of the disturbance. 

The tallest building in the city, and one of the first 



32 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

to suffer from the shock, was the Spreckels Building, 
on the same side of Market Street as the Palace Hotel 
and a block further west. It was a sixteen-story build- 
ing, surmounted by a dome of imposing proportions 
from which might be obtained a fine view of the entire 
city. It was virtually wrecked by the earthquake and 
its tenants, including the force of the San Francisco 
Call, fled in dismay. The Examiner Building, close 
by, was shaken to its foundations. 

The Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company's hand- 
some building at California and Sansome Streets was 
one of the most imposing in the city, costing nearly 
$500,000. It was ruined by the quake and fire. An- 
other well known building wrecked was the Phelan 
Building, at the junction of Market and O'Farrell 
Streets. This building was not one of the modern 
structures, but it occupied important Market Street 
frontage. 

Few of the buildings destroyed were better known 
to the visitors to San Francisco than the old California 
fish market, with its al fresco restaurants and appetiz- 
ing displays of fish, game, fruits and meats. 

The tall steel frame structures stood the strain of 
the earthquake better than brick buildings, few of them 
being badly damaged. The big eleven-story Monad- 
nock office building, in course of construction, adjoin- 
ing the Palace Hotel, was an exception, however, its 
rear wall collapsing and many cracks being made 
across its front. Some of the docks and freight sheds 
along the water front slid into the bay. Deep fissures 
opened in the filled-in ground near the shore. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 33 

The new postoffice, one of the finest in the United 
States, was badly shattered. 

The Valencia Hotel, a four-story wooden building, 
sank into the basement, a pile of splintered timbers, 
under which were pinned many dead and dying occu- 
pants of the house. The basement was full of water 
and some of the helpless victims were drowned. 

The sheds over the Southern Pacific's long wharf 
on San Francisco Bay collapsed. The bunkers fell 
into the bay, carrying with them thousands of tons 
of coal. The long wharf was one of the most impor- 
tant shipping points about the bay. 

Among the early reports from the shattered city was 
one that declared the famous Cliff House had suc- 
cumbed to the force of the earthquake and had fallen 
into the sea with all its occupants. Fortunately, this 
proved to be untrue. The great pleasure resort and 
show place and the magnificent Sutro Baths near by 
sustained no damage beyond broken windows. 

The Cliff House stands on a rocky bluff overlooking 
the Pacific Ocean. It is fifty or sixty feet above the 
water and has been a resort for thousands, both in 
winter and in summer. It is a favorite pastime of vis- 
itors there to sit on the west verandas of the hotel and 
watch the hundreds of sea lions and seals which con- 
gregate on large rocks about 200 feet from the main- 
land. In stormy weather waves frequently break over 
the top of the building. 

Among the other buildings destroyed or partly de- 
stroyed were the Sunset Building, in Bush Street; the 
Western Union Telegraph Building, at Pine and 
Montgomery Streets; the Pacific States Telephone 



34 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Building and the Rialto, in New Montgomery Street, 
between Howard and Mission Streets, near the Palace 
Hotel; the Natoma Building, at Second and Market 
Streets, and the Nevada Bank Building. The last 
named was not a modern structure, but unusual inter- 
est attached to it because of its financial strength and 
its earlier history in connection with the bonanza days 
of the Comstock. The Hibernian Bank, while in the 
damaged district, was a comparatively modern build- 
ing, and withstood the shock and fire. 

Davis Street, Front Street, Battery Street, Sansome, 
Montgomery, Kearny, Spear, Main, Beale and Fre- 
mont Streets — all were in the area of the earthquake's 
greatest fury. 

The cheap tenement-house districts suffered ter- 
ribly. Old buildings, constructed in the days of red- 
wood and dilapidated and tottering, collapsed with a 
succession of roars. Fires appeared in the ruins, and 
the fire fighters were powerless to extinguish the 
flames. 

The old Dolores Mission, the first building erected 
by the Spanish priests who founded the city 130 years 
ago, escaped destruction by the earthquake. The new 
mission, a much larger building alongside the old one, 
was badly shattered. 

" No one will ever adequately describe the grandeur 
and the horror of the scene," said A. D. Evans of New 
Brunswick, N. J. " I saw buildings fly up in the air 
and become fragments, like shells hurled from mam- 
moth guns. I saw wrought-iron and steel twisted and 
bent in the strangest conceivable shapes. I saw streets 
and pavements become rucks and hollows. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 35 

" At the time of the first shock I was asleep in my 
room on the third floor of the Maryland Hotel, which 
is six blocks west of the Palace Hotel and directly op- 
posite Union Square, where the Dewey Memorial stood. 
When the shock came I was hurled from my bed to 
the floor and was covered with plaster from the ceil- 
ing. I rushed for the stairway. My door had been 
thrown wide open. As I went down the hall I heard 
the cries of women in a room adjoining mine. I threw 
myself against the door and broke it open, releasing 
two women. They ran down the hall with me and 
escaped. 

" When we reached the street hundreds of people in 
all stages of dress and undress were frantically run- 
ning around, wringing their hands and crying. The 
first thing I noticed was that the huge iron pillars of 
the Dewey Memorial were twisted like strands of wire 
and that they were bent to the ground in at least three 
different directions, showing the direction of the earth 
waves. 

" I happened to look toward the Call Building, which 
loomed up in the distance, and suddenly from the sixth 
floor of that building there was a burst of greenish 
flame. In an instant the entire building was a mass 
of flames from top to bottom. 

" As there was no apparent indication of further 
harm, and as the Maryland Hotel was still intact, I 
ran back to the building and into my room. I put on 
my clothing and took my money from my trunk. I 
then went downstairs again. 

" Passing through the halls of the hotel I saw groups 
of men and women sitting on the floor, and in every 



36 THE SAN FRANCISCO DtSASTEfc 

conceivable attitude of distress and helplessness. No 
one seemed to know what to do. 

" I went to the hotel proprietor, who was trying to 
reassure the guests, and was talking to him when there 
was another tremor of the earth, and with it the people 
in the hotel made a mad rush for the street. In this 
one woman was killed and three were so badly injured 
that they died later in the square opposite the hotel. 

" I started for the Oakland ferry and as I went down 
the street the soldiers from the Presidio were already 
surrounding the bank buildings, and the United States 
mint resembled a small fortification. The street car 
tracks were upturned, and in many instances the rails 
were broken cleanly in two. There were holes in the 
street that varied from two or three inches to two feet, 
while in many places the asphalt was bulged up in 
huge bubbles, like miniature balloons, indicating, I was 
informed later, the tremendous pressure of the gas 
below." 

" My room was in the Grand Hotel," said another 
man. " When I awakened the house was shaken as a 
terrier would shake a rat. I dressed and made for the 
street, which seemed to move like waves of water. On 
my way down Market Street the whole side of a build- 
ing fell out and came so near me that I was covered 
and blinded by the dust. Then I saw the first dead 
come by. They were piled up in an automobile like 
carcasses in a butcher's wagon, all over blood, with 
crushed skulls and broken limbs, and bloody faces. 

" A man cried out to me, ' Look out for that live 
wire.' I just had time to sidestep certain death. On 
each side of me the fires were burning fiercely. I 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 37 

finally got into the open space before the ferry. The 
ground was still shaking and gaping open in places. 
Women and children knelt on the cold asphalt and 
prayed God would be merciful to them. At last we 
got on the boat. Not a woman in that crowd had 
enough clothing to keep her warm, let alone the money 
for fare. I took off my hat, put a little money in it, 
and we got enough money right there to pay all their 
fares." 



CHAPTER III 

FLAMES SWEEP THE DOOMED CITY 

Conflagrations Break Out at Scores of Points — Fire 
Department Helpless — Water Mains Broken by 
Quake — Many Buildings Blown Up by Dynamite 
in Effort to Check Flames — Government Troops 
Batter Down Blocks With Cannon — Fire Spreads 
Remorselessly to Residence Districts Until Almost 
the Entire City Is Consumed. 

Shattered by the earthquake and crumbling to her 
fall, San Francisco had yet to suffer the crowning af- 
fliction that wiped her out of existence. Following 
instantly upon the shocks of the early morning, flames 
seized upon the devoted city, and in thirty-six hours 
great San Francisco had been reduced to a waste of 
ashes and twisted iron. 

The heroic efforts of the firemen were rendered un- 
availing from the first by lack of water. The earth- 
quake had burst the mains throughout the city and 
the department was helpless. High winds from the 
Pacific Ocean drove the flames before them and the 
conflagration swept over the place in a storm of fire. 
Oakland and other neighboring cities sent fire appara- 
tus, but it was returned as useless. 

In this dire strait resort, was had to dynamite, artil- 
lery and giant powder. Scores of buildings in the path 
of the fire were blown up in ineffectual efforts to check 

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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 41 

its progress. The awful bombardment was kept up 
all the day and night of Wednesday and until Thurs- 
day evening. Then the supply of explosives was 
nearly exhausted. The government arsenals had been 
emptied of their stocks and quantities hurried in from 
other cities had been used in vain. 

It was evident that practically the entire city was 
doomed and even the most sanguine then gave up hope. 
Block after block of great office buildings, hotels, thea- 
ters, factories and warehouses melted away like wax 
in the terrific heat. All the quaint foreign quarters 
turned to ashes in a few minutes. With mighty leaps 
the conflagration spread in a dozen directions and rap- 
idly ate its way into the residence districts. Palatial 
houses on -Nob Hill, and other high portions of the 
city were swallowed in the maelstrom of fire. Only 
the more sparsely settled outlying districts were saved. 

Fire Chief Sullivan was fatally hurt by the earth- 
quake shock, and Assistant Chief Dougherty took up 
the hopeless task of staying the flames. Many ex- 
perienced fire fighters from other cities went to his 
assistance, but they predicted early that the entire city 
would be consumed. 

Scarcely had the earth ceased to shake Wednesday 
morning when fires broke out simultaneously in many 
places. The fire department promptly responded to 
the first calls for aid, but it was found that the water 
mains had been rendered useless by the underground 
movement. Fanned by a fair breeze, the flames 
quickly spread, and soon many blocks were seen to be 
doomed. Then dynamite was resorted to. 

The sound of frequent explosions added to the ter- 



42 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ror of the people. All efforts to stay the progress of 
the fire, however, proved futile. The south side of 
Market Street from Ninth Street to the bay was soon 
ablaze, the fire covering a belt two blocks wide. On 
this, the main thoroughfare of the city, were located 
many of the finest edifices in the city, including the 
Grant, Parrott, Flood, Call, Examiner, and Monad- 
nock Buildings, the Palace and Grand Hotels, and nu- 
merous wholesale houses. 

At the same time the commercial establishments and 
banks north of Market Street were burning. The 
burning district in this section extended from Sansome 
Street to the water front and from Market Street to 
Broadway. Fires also broke out in the Mission and 
the entire city seemed to be in flames. 

The fire swept down the street so rapidly that it 
was practically impossible to save anything in its way. 
It reached the Grand Opera House on Mission Street, 
and in a moment had burned through the roof. The 
Conried Metropolitan Opera Company of New York, 
which had just opened a two weeks' engagemnet, lost 
its entire consignment of valuable scenery, and the 
artists suffered heavily in the loss of personal bag- 
gage. 

The Grand Opera House was one of the oldest thea- 
ters in San Francisco. It was located on Mission 
Street, between Third and Fourth, and for a number 
of years was the leading playhouse of the city. 

From the opera house the fire leaped from building 
to building, leveling them almost to the ground in 
quick succession. The Call editorial and mechanical 
departments were totally destroyed in a few minutes, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 43 

and the flames leaped across Stevenson Street toward 
the fine fifteen-story stone and iron Claus Spreckels 
Building, which, with its lofty dome, was the most 
notable edifice in San Francisco. Two small wooden 
buildings furnished fuel to ignite the splendid pile. 
Thousands of people watched the hungry tongues of 
flame licking the stone walls. 

At first no impression was made, but suddenly there 
was a cracking of glass and an entrance was effected. 
The interior furnishings of the fourth floor were the 
first to go. Then, as though by magic, smoke issued 
from the top of the dome. This was followed by a 
most spectacular illumination. The round windows of 
the dome shone like so many full moons; they burst 
and gave vent to long, waving streamers of flame. The 
crowd watched the spectacle with bated breath. 

For a time it was believed the Palace Hotel, being 
surrounded by streets, might be saved. But the 
guests and employes fled in haste and soon the mas- 
sive building was in flames. The Occidental Hotel, 
the Crocker-Woolworth National Bank Building and 
the immense D. O. Mills Building also succumbed. 

The Parrott Building, in which were located the 
chambers of the State Supreme Court, the lower floors 
being devoted to an immense department store, was 
ruined, though its massive walls were not all de- 
stroyed. A little further down Market Street the 
Academy of Sciences and the Jennie Flood Building 
and the History Building kindled and burned like so 
much tinder. 

Sparks carried across the wide street, ignited the 
Phelan Building and the army headquarters of the De- 



44 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

partment of the Pacific, General Funston command- 
ing, were burned. 

Still nearing the bay along the docks, the fire took 
the Rialto Building, a handsome skyscraper, and con- 
verted scores of solid business blocks into smoldering 
piles of brick. 

Banks and commercial houses, supposed to be fire- 
proof, though not of modern build, burned quickly, 
and the roar of the flames could be heard even on the 
hills which were out of the danger zone. Here many 
thousands of people congregated and witnessed the 
awful scene. Great mountains of flames rose high in 
the heavens, or rushed down some narrow street, join- 
ing midway between the sidewalks and making a hor- 
izontal chimney of the former passageways. 

The dense smoke which arose from the entire busi- 
ness district spread out like an immense funnel and 
could have been seen for miles out at sea. Occasion- 
ally, as some drug house or place stored with chem- 
icals was reached, most fantastic effects were pro- 
duced by the colored flames and smoke which rolled 
out against the darker background. 

Shortly after midnight Wednesday the streets about 
Union Square were attacked by the conflagration. 
Eager spectators watched for the first red streamers 
to appear from the windows of the great dry goods 
stores. Smoke eddied from under window sills and 
through cracks made by the earthquake in the cor- 
nices. Then the cloud grew denser. A puff of hot 
wind came from the west, and as if from the signal 
there streamed flamboyantly from every window in the 
top floor of the structure billowing banners, as a poppy 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 4& 

colored silk that jumped skyward in curling, snapping 
breadths, a fearful heraldry of the pomp of destruc- 
tion. 

From the copper minarets on the Hebrew Synagogue 
behind Union Square tiny green, coppery flames next 
began to shoot forth. They grew quickly larger, and 
as the heat increased in intensity there shone from the 
two great bulbs of metals sheathing an iridescence 
that blinded like a sight into a blast furnace. 

With a roar the minarets exploded almost simul- 
taneously, and the sparks shot up to mingle with the 
dulled stars overhead. The Union League and Pacific 
Union Clubs next shone red with the fire that was put- 
ting them. 

On three sides ringed with sheets of flame rose the 
Dewey Memorial in the midst of Union Square. Vic- 
tory tiptoeing on the apex of the column glowed red 
with the red flames. It was as if the goddess of battle 
had suddenly become apostate and a fiend linked in 
sympathy with the devils of the blaze. 

Next the flames swept the houses of the Bohemian, 
Pacific, Union and Family Clubs, the best in San Fran- 
cisco, and the beautiful St. Francis Hotel. With them 
were obliterated the huge retail stores along Post 
Street ; St. Luke's Church, the biggest Episcopal church 
on the Pacific Coast, and the priceless Hopkons Art In- 
stitute. 

Thursday morning dawned on a scene of utter deso- 
lation in the business heart of the city, and the fire was 
still raging, eating its way into the residence districts 
by a dozen paths. The wind had changed to the west 
and the flames were moving in a wide swath from the 



46 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

water front on the north of Market Street toward Nob 
Hill, the most aristocratic quarter of the city. Slowly 
but surely the conflagration made its way up the slope, 
and as it passed, it left behind the blackened ruins of 
the Stanford, Flood and Crocker residences and scores 
of other beautiful homes, and the new Fairmount 
Hotel. 

Desperate efforts were made to save the priceless 
pictures in the Hopkins Art Institute. A young lieu- 
tenant of artillery took his stand in front of the insti- 
tute when the fire first started, commandeered every 
vehicle that came near, and pressed into service every 
able bodied man in the vicinity to remove the paintings 
and sculpture from the bulding. When any one de- 
murred the officer drew his gun and forced him to obey 
his orders. 

Paintings were removed by hundreds and placed on 
the broad lawn of the Stanford mansion next to the 
institute on the east, but as the whole district soon 
was swept by flames, the treasures were destroyed. 

In the Mission District, to the south of Market 
Street, the zone of ruin was extended farther westward. 
Near Fourteenth and Mission Streets were the South- 
ern Pacific Hospital, the St. Francis Hospital and the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons. In the effort to 
save these institutions buildings all around them were 
blown up by dynamite, but in vain. 

Mechanics' Pavilion, the scene of hundreds of great 
political, social and sporting events, was burned to the 
ground. Wednesday this had been converted into a 
hospital, and 400 injured persons were being cared for 
there by physicians and nurses. When the flames ap- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 47 

proached all these sufferers were loaded into wagons 
and taken to places of safety in the outskirts. It was 
believed for a time that the injured had been roasted 
to death in the blazing pavilion, but this horrible fate 
was averted by the heroism of the medical attendants, 
who refused to leave until their patients had all been 
rescued. 

Thursday afternoon, while Nob Hill was still burn- 
ing, Mayor Schmitz and Chief of Police Dinan decided 
that the only hope of saving the Western Addition, 
with its forest of frame dwellings, and the Richmond 
District, with its thousands of homes, was to check the 
march of the wall of fire at Van Ness Avenue, which 
crosses the city from north to south. 

This avenue is 90 feet wide and the possibilities of 
checking the march of the flames here looked hopeful 
to those who were figuring on ways and means. 

Orders were given to concentrate every fire engine 
in the city at this avenue, to marshal troops of soldiers 
there, the police, and all the army of workers, and 
make one last stand to save the remainder of the city. 

The co-operation of the artillery was secured and 
huge cannons were drawn to the avenue by the military 
horses to aid the dynamiters in blowing up the man- 
sions of the millionaires on the west side of Van Ness 
in order to prevent the flames from leaping across the 
highway and starting on their unrestrained sweep 
across the Western Addition. 

Every available pound of dynamite was hauled to 
this point, and the sight was one of stupendous and 
appalling havoc, as the cannons were trained on the 



48 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

palaces and the shot tore into the walls and toppled the 
buildings in crushing ruins. 

All that afternoon and evening the steady booming 
of artillery and the roar of dynamite was heard above 
the howl and cracking of the flames. Beyond Van 
Ness Avenue and Filbert the flames did not find enough 
material to feed upon and seemed to be dying down 
gradually. But all day Friday the weary firemen kept 
up the fight, checking the spread of the fire wherever 
possible. The wind shifted again that day and blew 
the flames back over the burned district. Then, late 
in the afternoon another horror threatened. A gale 
from the northwest set in and by 7 o'clock in the even- 
ing the conflagration, with its energy renewed, was 
sweeping over fifty acres of the water front north and 
west of Telegraph Hill. Fleeing from their homes in 
the section known as North Beach, ten thousand men, 
women and children, most of them foreigners, sought 
refuge in the neighborhood of Meiggs and Fisherman's 
Wharves, where it seemed that all must perish. At 
the same time the Union Ferry Depot, the sole means 
of egress from the city, was threatened, as well as the 
water front emergency hospital. 

The firemen still at work in other quarters of the 
city were hastily summoned to combat the new danger. 
Hundreds of sailors from United States warships and 
hundreds of soldiers joined in the battle, and from mid- 
night until dawn men fought fire as never fire had been 
fought before. Fire tugs drew up along the water 
front and threw immense streams of water on to the 
flames of burning factories, warehouses, and sheds. 

Blocks of buildings were blown up with powder, gun- 




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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER §3 

cotton, and dynamite, or torn down by men armed 
with axes and ropes. All night long the struggle con- 
tinued. Mayor Schmitz and Chief of Police Dinan, 
although without sleep for forty-eight hours, remained 
on the scene all night to assist army and navy officers 
in directing the fight. 

By 7 o'clock Saturday morning this tremendous 
battle had been won. The Ferry Building and the 
docks in its immediate vicinity had been saved. On 
the North Beach the fire did not reach that part of the 
water front lying west of the foot of Powell Street. 

The burned area was about seven square miles in 
extent, and twenty-six miles in circumference. With- 
in this vast waste of smoldering embers were three 
oases where buildings were preserved by wonderful ex- 
ertions and good fortune. One of these was the dis- 
trict bounded by Montgomery, Battery, Jackson and 
Washington Streets. Within this district is the ap- 
praiser's building, in which was stored some $500,000 
worth of valuable wares belonging to the importing 
merchants of San Francisco. The saving of this and 
the adjoining buildings is ascribed to the heroic en- 
deavors of Captain Wolf and his men of Company D, 
Twenty-second United States Infantry, who, with such 
means as they had at hand, succeeded in fighting ofT 
the devouring element. 

On the summit of Telegraph Hill a score of houses 
and six flat buildings were left standing. 

The third spot unburned lies in the Latin Quarter 
on the east and south slopes of Telegraph Hill, where 
some 300 houses remain to attest the efficiency of the 
juice of the grape in quenching flames. The only avail- 



54 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

able water supply was found in a well dug in early 
days. At a critical moment the pump suddenly sucked 
dry, and the water in the well was exhausted. 

" There is a last chance, boys," was shouted, and 
Italian residents crashed in their cellar doors with axes, 
and, calling for assistance, began rolling out barrels of 
red wine. The cellars gave forth barrel after barrel 
until there were fully 500 gallons ready for use. 

Then barrel heads were smashed in and the bucket 
brigade turned from water to wine. Sacks were dipped 
in the wine and used for beating out the fire. Beds 
were stripped of their blankets, and these were soaked 
in the wine and hung over the exposed portions of the 
cottages, and men on the roofs drenched the shingles 
and sides of the houses with wine. And the wine won. 

A landmark of the city that escaped destruction, 
though every building surrounding it was burned, is 
the United States Mint, at the corner of Fifth and Mis- 
sion Streets. Harold French, an employe of the mint, 
gave a graphic account of how the flames were suc- 
cessfully fought. He said: 

" Nearly $20,000,000 in coin and bullion are stored 
in the vaults of the mint and for the preservation of 
this prize a devoted band of employes, reinforced by 
regular soldiers, fought until the baffled flames fled to 
the conquest of blocks of so-called fireproof buildings. 

" For seven hours a sea of fire surged around this 
grand old federal edifice, attacking it on all sides with 
waves of fierce heat. Its little garrison was cut off 
from retreat for hours at a time, had such a course 
been thought of by those on guard. The United States 
Mint was constructed in 1874 of granite and sand- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 55 

stone blocks, massive monoliths, well calculated to re- 
sist fire from without. Within, however, were enough 
inflammable materials to feed a lively conflagration. 
Iron shutters shielded the lower floors, but the win- 
dows of the upper story, on which are located the re- 
finery and assay office, were exposed. Also a tarred 
roof over the refinery constituted a weak spot in the 
defense. Tanks of wood and other inflammable ma- 
terial scattered about the roof and upper story were a 
serious menace. 

" After the fire had swept past the Mission Street 
side and the certainty of its returning from the north 
became apparent, Captain of the Watch Laws ordered 
everything on the roof that would burn thrown into 
the yard. Soldiers and mint employes worked with 
utmost haste, throwing great timbers and tank staves 
into the court. 

" Here are located some thirty tanks of blue vitriol, 
the surfaces of which soon were covered with debris, 
into which increasing showers of cinders fell. Fortu- 
nately, the mint possesses a good well, and Engineer 
Brady pumped water to the fire fighters assembled on 
the roof. Of these forty were mint employes, and they 
were aided by a company of coast artillery. 

" As the fire swept up Fifth Street the heat increased 
to a dangerous degree as, one by one, the Metropolitan 
Hall and the historic Lincoln School burst into flames, 
reinforced by the roaring furnace of the Emporium. 
On the west the block bounded by Sixth and Market 
Streets on the north gave the gravest concern, for from 
this quarter the fire was certain to rage in its fury. 

" Fanned by a roaring northerly wind, the flames 



5$ THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

rioted through the structures stretching from the 
Windsor Hotel to the Emma Spreckels Building, sheets 
of fire of 200 feet high licking up the intervening houses 
on Mint Avenue. Augmented by these tinder boxes 
the blast of fire burst on the northwest corner of the 
mint like the breath of a second Pelee. 

" A few desperate fighters under ex-Chief Kennedy 
of Oakland were driven from between the tottering 
chimneys, under whose twin terrors they had strug- 
gled to the last, throwing buckets of water upon the 
blazing roof over the refinery. It is largely due to the 
experience of former Chief Kennedy that this tar cov- 
ered roof, the weakest spot of all, was saturated with 
sufficient water to stay the flames. 

" When the fire leaped Mint Avenue in solid masses 
of flame the refinery men stuck to their windows as 
long as the glass remained in the frames. Seventy- 
five feet of one-inch hose played a slender stream upon 
the blazing window sill, while the floor was awash with 
diluted sulphuric acid. Ankle deep in this, soldiers 
and employes stuck to the floor until the windows were 
shattered. 

" With a roar the tongues of fire licked greedily the 
inner walls. Blinding and suffocating smoke necessi- 
tated the abandonment of the hose and the fighters re- 
treated to the floor below. The roar of falling walls, 
the thunder of bursting blocks of stone, the din of 
crashing glass, swelled to an unearthly diapason. If 
thirteen inch shells were crashing against the mint 
walls the deafening detonations and the force of their 
impact would scarcely have exceeded the fury of the 
attack. Down in the deeps, where untold wealth is so 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 57 

well safeguarded, artillerymen, ringed with blanket 
rolls and leaning on their rifles, coughed in the stran- 
gling smoke. 

" Then came a lull ; the walls of brick buildings across 
the street had all fallen. There was yet a fighting 
chance, so back to the upper story the fire fighters re- 
turned, led by Superintendent Leach, who, by example 
and words, encouraged his men to extinguish the blaz- 
ing inner woodwork of the refinery. 

" The roof was next swept by a hose, cooling the 
copper sheathed surface until it became passable for 
wet, acid soaked feet. An army officer, ax in hand, 
tore up sections of blazing tar roof, beneath which a 
stream of water was directed. At length, as 4 o'clock 
drew near, the mint was pronounced out of danger, and 
a handful of exhausted but exultant employes stum- 
bled out on the hot cobblestones to learn the fate of 
their homes. " 

As a result of the earthquake and fire the number 
of dead was estimated at from 3,000 to 5,000; the in- 
jured numbered 15,000 and 300,000 persons were made 
homeless. 

The area burned over was ten square miles; city 
blocks destroyed 1,000. The property loss was esti- 
mated at $400,000,000. 



CHAPTER IV 

REIGN OF TERROR 

Mad Panic Seizes the Citizens — Martial Law Is Pro- 
claimed — General Fred Funston Takes Charge — 
Government and State Troops Patrol Streets — 
Shooting of Ghouls and Thieves — Hunger, Thirst 
and Fears of Epidemic — Lunatics From Shattered 
Asylum Tied to Trees. 

Mad, unreasoning panic seized upon the citizens of 
San Francisco long before they realized the extent of 
the awful disaster that had befallen them. Most of 
the people were asleep when the first earthquake 
shocks brought their homes tumbling about their 
heads. In an instant thousands of unclad men, women 
and children were rushing about the streets, scream- 
ing, weeping and calling frantically for aid. 

People would run forward, stop as another shock, 
which might be greater any moment, seemed to take 
the earth from under their feet, and throw themselves 
face downward on the ground in a perfect agony of 
fear. 

It seemed two or three minutes after the great shock 
was over before people found their voices. There fol- 
lowed the screaming of women, beside themselves with 
terror, and the cries of men. 

With one impulse all made for the parks, as far 
as possible from falling walls. These speedily became 

58 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 59 

packed with people in their night clothes, who 
screamed at the little shocks which followed every few 
minutes. 

The dawn was just breaking, but there was no 
other light, for the gas and electric mains were gone 
and the street lamps were all out. But before the 
dawn was white there came a light, from the east — 
the burning of the warehouse district. 

Where the effect of the shocks was greatest the 
bodies of the dead and injured lay in the debris of the 
ruined buildings. For a time the entire population 
was distracted with terror. Then the masterful men 
of the city, headed by Mayor Schmitz, took control. 
And none too soon, for the ghouls and vandals that 
are ever ready to prey upon the misfortunes of others 
had begun their dastardly work. Drunken denizens 
of the city's foulest districts already were slinking 
about, robbing the bodies of the dead. 

Martial law was put in force quickly and troops 
from the Presidio, the Thirteenth Infantry from Angel 
Island, the Coast Artillery, and the local regiments of 
the state militia were soon patrolling the streets, di- 
recting the refugees and driving out suspicious char- 
acters. General Frederick Funston, in command of 
the Presidio Reservation, was on the scene soon after 
daylight and gave the soldiers orders to shoot down 
any persons seen robbing the dead or injured, looting 
stores or committing other acts of vandalism. These 
orders were carried out to the letter. A score of 
ghouls caught plundering the victims of the disaster 
were killed in their tracks and their bodies were con- 
signed to the flames of some burning building without 



60 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

any further formality. Early on Wednesday a police- 
man saw a wharf rat crawling through the window 
of a bank and shot him dead. Despite these drastic 
measures the thieves and thugs continued their hor- 
rible work, perpetrating every crime on the calendar 
from murder to arson, and looting hundreds of homes 
that had been deserted by their owners in the mad 
rush to points of assumed safety. 

In several instances thieves were run through with 
bayonets and their bodies left lying where they had 
fallen, to become food for the oncoming flames. 

At one place on Thursday, five men were 'shot — two 
killed and three badly wounded. The troops had 
thrown open a corner grocery with the usual order 
that the crowd might carry off all it contained except 
the liquors. A large party of men made a rush for 
the place and emerged with quantities of whisky. 
When called upon to drop them, they failed to obey 
and a volley was fired upon them. 

No mercy was shown to those that defied calls to 
halt. The rifle was leveled with the first order, and, 
on the failure of a second command to stop the of- 
fender, it was discharged. 

One man on Market Street, who was found digging 
in the ruins of a jewelry shop, was discovered by a 
naval service man and fired upon three times. The 
fellow sought safety in flight, but the reserve man 
brought him down by running his bayonet through 
him. 

The most distressing result of this determination to 
prevent disorder and enforce obedience was the kill- 
ing, Sunday night, of H. C. Tilden, one of the most 




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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 63 

prominent members of the general relief committee. 
He was shot in his automobile by members of the citi- 
zens' patrol. Hugo Altschul, who was in the auto- 
mobile, was cut in the face by a bullet and another 
ball pierced the seat and struck R. G. Seaman, acting 
lieutenant of the Second Company of the Signal 
Corps, in the back. The force of the bullet had been 
spent and Seaman, who had been detailed on special 
duty with Tilden, picked the ball out of his cartridge 
belt. 

Tilden was a prominent commission merchant of 
this city, a major on the governor's staff, and was one 
of the foremost workers in the general relief work. 
He had taken his three children and a nurse from the 
Fourteen Mile House, where they had been since the 
earthquake, to Menlo Park, where he had a summer 
cottage. His automobile had been used as an ambu- 
lance in conveying sick and wounded to the hospitals 
and was carrying the Red Cross flag. Besides this he 
had the Red Cross insignia on his right arm. 

According to Acting Lieutenant Seaman, Tilden 
was his own chauffeur, and left Menlo Park about 9 
o'clock. At Twenty-eighth and Guerrero Streets they 
were challenged by the first chain of patrols, and upon 
calling out, " Red Cross ! " were allowed to pass. At 
Twenty-fifth Street a second guard challenged them, 
and immediately gave way upon perceiving the Red 
Cross flag. At Twenty-second Street six men stood 
in the middle of the road, separating when the car got 
within fifty feet of them. When within ten feet of 
the guard they began shooting without warning or 
challenge, and kept up firing after the car had passed 



64 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

them. Shots from in front took no effect, with the 
exception of a bullet grazing the face of Tilden's 
friend. 

" The machine had gone about fifty feet past the 
patrol," said Seaman, " when the car stopped suddenly. 
Tilden fell over toward me, saying, ' Well, they got 
me — they killed me/ flopped back in the seat and rolled 
out of the car. I sprang up and fired five shots in 
quick succession at those who were still shooting be- 
hind us." 

Soon hunger and thirst were added to the torments 
of the stricken populace. Many thousands, scantily 
clad, spent days in the parks and outskirts of the city, 
practically without food or drink, before relief could 
reach them. Scores succumbed to this suffering and 
privation and were added to the death roll of the great 
disaster. Great warehouses full of food-stuffs that 
had been counted on to feed the famishing were con- 
sumed by the flames Thursday and for many hours 
the railroads could not bring in the supplies of food 
contributed by other cities. The waterworks and 
mains having been destroyed, it was necessary to carry 
water long distances to places where the injured had 
been collected. In many instances the precious fluid 
was sold at exorbitant prices by conscienceless per- 
sons, while men and women were going mad with 
thirst. 

Men, greedy beyond belief, also sought to fatten 
upon the dire misfortune of others by charging extor- 
tionate prices for food. Bread was sold for $i a loaf 
and canned goods for $1.50 a can. But the authori- 
ties soon put an end to this. In shops out of the path 



THE SAN F&ANCISCO DISASTER 65 

of the flames orders to sell goods at the usual prices 
were enforced at the point of the bayonet. Where the 
places could not be saved from the flames, they were 
thrown open by the soldiers and the hungry crowds 
were told to help themselves. 

Before the fire Armour & Co. had a large number 
of refrigerator cars full of provisions of various sorts 
standing on the tracks at the wharves. When it be- 
came evident that these could not be saved, a flock of 
" wharf rats " and hoodlums were permitted to go in 
and take everything they wanted. A wild scramble 
ensued, the men and boys fighting desperately for the 
food. In a few moments every car was empty. 

The soldiers and police broke into every shop that 
contained intoxicating liquors and poured all such 
drink into the gutters. Had it not been for their 
prompt and inexorable action in this regard, the ruined 
city must have suffered from an awful reign of drunk- 
enness and crime. 

Other extortionists were the possessors of vehicles 
of all kinds. They demanded, and often received, out- 
rageous prices for conveying persons to points of 
safety, but here, too, the authorities intervened. 
Wagons were seized by the soldiers whenever they 
could be found and the protests of the owners were 
unheeded. 

One of the startling incidents of the disaster was the 
report, following the destruction of the State Insane 
Asylum at Agnew, that hundreds of lunatics were at 
large and were making their way into the city. The 
story was unfounded, for the attendants at the asylum 
bravely stood to their posts and until shelter could be 



66 ^HE SAK FRANCISCO DISASTER 

provided they tied scores of the more dangerous ma- 
niacs to trees in the grounds surrounding the asylum. 

In the monster encampment of refugees at Golden 
Gate Park about fifty infants first saw the light of day. 
The lack of food and medical attendance for mothers 
and babies resulted in great distress, but Friday quan- 
tities of milk and infants' food was sent over from Oak- 
land, a place was set apart for maternity cases and 
physicians detailed to this special work. 

Insanitary conditions among the homeless caused 
the gravest fear that an epidemic of disease would 
break out. This added infliction was averted only by 
the prompt action of the authorities, as detailed in an- 
other chapter. 

Horrible and pathetic incidents were so frequent 
during the earthquake and conflagration that they 
passed almost unnoticed. Mackenzie Gordon, the 
singer, leaping from his bed at the first shock, saw a 
window rise in the seventh story of an apartment 
house opposite his hotel and a naked man leaped from 
it. At the fourth floor the man's leg caught in the 
fire escape and was torn out at the hip, the body fall- 
ing to the pavement below. 

One man was caught under the ruins of the Temple 
of Justice. He was frightfully injured and being 
pinned down by a huge timber, could not escape. For 
a time soldiers and police worked hard to release him, 
but the flames drove them away and the wretched man, 
already scorched, begged a policeman to kill him. The 
officer fired a shot at him, but missed. Then a pedes- 
trian rushed up, cut the arteries in the man's wrist, 
and he died. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 67 

Five firemen were crushed to death Wednesday 
night while fighting the flames. They were caught 
beneath the debris of a building which collapsed. 

At midnight Wednesday thirty persons were im- 
prisoned in an apartment-house. The firemen cut 
through the walls with their axes, determined if pos- 
sible to rescue the imprisoned people. A hole big 
enough to permit the passage of a man was made in 
the wall and R. C. Durie, a San Francisco fireman, 
thrust through his arm and was assisting a young girl 
to safety when the roof of the structure collapsed. 
Durie escaped with his life, but the thirty imprisoned 
persons were killed. 

Many persons were made insane by the terrible ca- 
lamity that had overtaken them and their city and the 
horrible sights they witnessed. It was found neces- 
sary to establish a detention hospital in the basement 
of the Sacred Heart School, conducted by the Domin- 
ican Sisters at Fillmore and Hayes Streets. One 
crazy Chinaman, who was being cared for at the Pre- 
sidio Hospital, was killed by a delirious federal patient, 
his skull being crushed by an iron bar. 

Fear of contagion and pestilence led to the hasty 
burial of all dead bodies where they were found. Sol- 
diers commandeered the services of civilians, and the 
victims of the disaster were interred in trenches all over 
the city, in public squares, in vacant lots and in jagged 
holes made by the earthquake shock. The remains of 
rich and poor alike were placed in these improvised 
graves, most of them to remain there unidentified. 
There was no time to transport them to cemeteries, 



68 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and to leave them unburied meant added danger for 
the living. 

Winifred Black, reaching San Francisco on the third 
day after the quake, describes the situation. Nothing 
more vivid than this expression of the general feeling 
came out of the ruin and chaos of the hour. 

" Out in the desert last night/' writes this famous 
author, " we, who were coming to San Francisco, met 
a train full of people who were going away from it. 
A man leaned out of the window of one of the cars; 
his face was as white as the dry bones of a death's- 
head; his eyes were great empty staring things and 
his mouth was twisted into a mirthless smile. 

" ' Are you going back into hell?' he yelled. ' Good 
luck to the Devil ! ' 

" We on the train going west heard the hideous 
laughter of the man on the train going east and we 
looked at each other and wondered if he was insane, 
or if he knew what he meant. I know what the man 
meant now. I've been in San Francisco. 

" It is hard work getting into the city, the water 
front is guarded inch for inch, almost, with soldiers; 
all kinds of soldiers, from sunburned veterans, called 
in from the lonely outposts on the plains, to fresh- 
faced high school boys in a brand new uniform. But 
every one of them is a real soldier who means what he 
says when he cries 'Halt.' No one is allowed through 
the lines except Red Cross and newspaper people and 
the officers are besieged with crying, hysterical, threat- 
ening crowds who want to get into the city to find 
some one who is missing. 

" We went over in a launch and as we puffed along 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 69 

the water front I saw the great wharves slipping, slip- 
ping into the crawling bay, blackened and twisted 
masses of wreckage. The shores were lined with 
people wading in the sand. Along the north side of 
the city there was a group of houses some four or five 
blocks square I should say. They were still standing, 
empty and forlorn. 

" At the Presidio, the government reservation, we 
saw at least a hundred thousand people sitting on the 
slopes of the green California hills, waiting, waiting — 
for what? Not one of them could tell. When I asked 
them about the night of the dreadful terror they stared 
at me with empty eyes. 'Were you there?' they 
said. 'No? Then you cannot understand.' And 
every man looked over his shoulder and every woman 
whispered hoarsely, when she spoke, as if they all were 
afraid of some malignant creeping thing which might 
overhear them. Little children stared at me when I 
tried to talk with them and one woman looked me in 
the eyes and screeched with horrid laughter. 

" ' She wants to know what we are going to do,' 
she shrieked. ' She never saw what we saw. What 
are we going to do? As if we had anything to do 
with it. Why,' she sank her voice to a rasping whis- 
per, ' why, you seem to think we're people, don't you? 
We aren't people; we are ants, little, creeping, hurry- 
ing, scurrying ants. You've stepped on ants lots of 
times, haven't you? — crunch.' She held up her bare 
foot with a dangling Japanese slipper and stamped it 
down into the soft ground in a fury. 

" ' See — that's what something did to us — crunch. 
And when we ran and it came after us again and we 



70 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

hid and it found us — crunch, crunch,' and she screamed 
with laughter again. ' Oh, it was fun/ and the chil- 
dren stared at her with stolid, awe-stricken faces. 

" ' I can find my way/ I told the chauffeur of the 
automobile I had captured on that side of the bay. 
' Take me out a ways in the burnt district and I will 
walk down/ The chauffeur looked at me strangely. 
'Aren't you afraid?' he said. Afraid, I thought, why 
the man's crazy. Afraid in San Francisco in broad 
daylight and I could walk every step of the way blind- 
folded and then all these soldiers about. ' Why should 
I be afraid? ' I said. The man looked over his shoul- 
der with a sly smile. ' You can try it,' he said, and 
so I tried. 

" I walked down Market Street from Laguna, about 
twenty-five blocks, I should think it is, and before I 
had gone one block I knew why the chauffeur asked 
me if I was not afraid. Down the middle of the great 
street we walked. The strange crowd of wandering 
white-faced men, women and children and I. Some- 
times ankle, and sometimes almost knee deep in cin- 
ders and grimy dust. Hatless men, women in bare 
feet, children wrapped in scorched rags and every- 
where soldiers — soldiers afoot and horseback; soldiers 
riding suddenly into us with a quick challenge of fly- 
ing hoofs; soldiers stopping wagons and making the 
drivers take tired women and lift them into the wagon 
box; soldiers stopping wandering men and setting 
them to work clearing the road with shovels; soldiers 
picking up the women's bundles, and carrying that 
woman's baby. Boys, most of them, clear-eyed Amer- 
ican boys. God bless them, and the uniform they 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 71 

wore! Where this stricken city would be to-day with- 
out them, no one even dares to dream. 

" But for all the soldiers and all the people, sud- 
denly I felt that I was alone, alone in this awful Gol- 
conda; this haunted hell. If the great walls were 
only completely down, if the whole city were a mass 
of cinders, it would be infinitely less hard to see, but 
to walk down, down, down, through this street of the 
awful ghosts of dead buildings, great towering wraiths 
of empty walls that seemed somehow instinct with 
some strange malignant intelligence. Are houses 
where men have died in agony and lived in cruel pleas- 
ure alive, I wonder? Can they die and come back to 
earth to haunt us? I never thought so before, but 
now — the Palace Hotel gone, with just a crazy wall 
left, with a window frame or two laughing insanely in 
the sunlight; the Hearst Building, a shell of the front 
elevation left; the Call, the Chronicle, the Flood Build- 
ing; all the splendid structures men had built in pride 
and in self-congratulation gone, all gone, hideous in 
their utter desolation, and every now and then the 
chuckling laughter of some smoldering flame that 
leaped and waved its cruel arms like some signal of 
sinister meaning. 

" * This is where we found ourselves to-day,' said a 
young girl to me. A girl who must have been beau- 
tiful a week ago. A girl with a walking skirt slipped 
on over a cambric nightdress, and a gorgeous opera 
cloak dragging over that. 

" ' My sister and I. We went to the opera that night 
and then to supper. We hadn't been in bed very long 
when the shake came; the wall of the room caved in 



72 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and we ran out; then the fire came and we went two 
or three blocks further down and sat down on some 
steps and the fire came again and the people from that 
house took us with them to another house, but we had 
to leave there. Last night we slept in Jefferson Park 
on the grass and people got frightened and we ran 
away from there, and I don't know where my sister 
has gone. I have no money. I wonder if they will 
let me cross the ferry.' 

" An old Chinaman, with a little white boy on his 
back, trotted along .beside the beautiful girl; on the 
other side of her was a creature with matted hair and 
the rouge showing through the dirt on her tear-stained 
face. She carried a cage with a canary bird in it and 
at her heels trotted a slinking terrier. 

" Down, down, the street of the dreadful ghosts we 
trudged, passed little groups of huddling creatures 
camping in the vacant spaces. Some were opening 
cans of tinned food; some were making tents of old 
sticks of timber and bits of ragged matting. 

" ' There will be a plague here within a week/ said 
a man in evening dress without a hat; 'two hundred 
thousand people camping out; no sewers, and water 
hard to get; fine pickings for the doctors. My luck 
always comes too late/ 

" * There are four cases of typhoid in the Red Cross 
Hospital now/ spoke up a woman in a child's tam- 
o'shanter and a white wrapper. ' I have been there 
looking for my little boy and I heard them talking/ 

" ' There were five children born in the park where 
I slept last night/ said an old woman whose gray hair 
was whipping in the wind. Along the curb here and 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 73 

there were wagons giving out food and waiting for 
the food was always a crowd of people a block long 
and half a street wide. 

" The sun began to sink into the sea. The tin roof- 
ing on one or two old ruins began to rattle in the even- 
ing breeze and here and there a vagrant flame chuckled 
noisily. The great empty walls seemed to totter in 
the waning light. 

" ' Oh, my God,' screamed a woman, rising to her 
feet, in a passing wagon. 'See, it's after us again; 
drive faster; can't you drive faster?' she pointed at a 
few embers glowing in the dusk." 

Prophetic finger! That poor, half-crazed woman 
saw nothing but destruction in that ember. But it was 
symbolical of the living spirit that is the real San Fran- 
cisco. And now we turn from these heart-breaking 
pictures of woe and desolation to the fairer and saner 
side of the story — the re-establishment of order which 
is the divine law of the universe and which rises tri- 
umphant over every cataclysm, be it in the material 
universe or social government. For every discord ends 
at last in harmony. 



CHAPTER V 

BRINGING ORDER OUT OF CHAOS 

Magnificent Work Done by General Funston and His 
Soldiers — Maddened Community Protected From 
Itself — Camps Established, Sanitation Enforced, 
Food and Shelter Provided— Difficult Problems Vig- 
orously Solved — Devotion of Mayor Schmitz and 
His Aids — Police and Militia Earn Praise — Restora- 
tion of More Normal Conditions. 

" Thank God for the soldiers," was the cry of the 
people of San Francisco during the days following the 
disaster, and it was echoed the country over. Never 
will the inhabitants of the Golden Gate City forget the 
debt of gratitude they owe the officers and privates of 
the United States Army. Nor are the boys of the 
California Militia, the men of the government navy 
yard and the heroic police force of San Francisco over- 
looked in the praise of noble work well done. 

Major-General A. W. Greely, in command of the 
Department of the Pacific, was on his way east when 
the catastrophe occurred, but General Funston, com- 
manding the Presidio Reservation, jumped to the 
front at once, joined forces with Mayor Schmitz and 
the other city officials and set about the mighty task 
of controlling the frantic city, rescuing its afflicted 
people and finally bringing order out of chaos. 

Martial law was put in force at once, the War De- 

74 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 75 

partment at Washington arranged for the immediate 
sending of rations and tents from the nearest barracks, 
camps and hospitals were established speedily, plans 
for the proper distribution of food supplies were made 
and carried out. And in all this General Funston was 
the absolute dictator. He violated the constitution 
and laws of the country at every turn, yet the land 
rang with his praises. The War Department, headed 
by Secretary Taft, fully indorsed his every act. He 
was given full discretion to employ his forces as he 
saw fit. He turned loose the soldiers with broad or- 
ders and general instructions to act as their own good 
sense dictated, and the non-commissioned officers and 
privates proved their worth. 

The soldiers, supplemented finally by marines and 
sailors from the fleet, made themselves masters of the 
situation, and with a ruthless but kindly disregard of 
law and precedent they restored order, carried the 
homeless to shelter, fed the hungry and portioned out 
precious water to the people who were clamoring for 
relief. 

When grasping food dealers tried to extort outrage- 
ous prices for bread, the boys in khaki drew their re- 
volvers and told them to sell their stock at the usual 
rates, or they would be shot down. Water wagons 
that were driven about the streets were guarded by 
soldiers, who compelled the distribution of the scanty 
supplies with even-handed justice. Where dead bod- 
ies were found, the soldiers forced citizens to assist 
in digging the graves. 

The United States cruisers Chicago and Marblehead 
were stationed off Meiggs Wharf and prevented all 



76 THE SAM FRANCISCO DISASTER 

vessels, whether foreign or domestic, from leaving the 
harbor. The vessels were held there to be ready for 
any emergency that might arise. 

The great streams of refugees were guided and 
driven to places of safety by the soldiers, and the in- 
jured, the sick and the aged were put into vehicles, 
whose owners were compelled, at the point of the bay- 
onet if necessary, to aid in the humane work of rescue. 
Where it was imperative that debris be cleared out of 
streets to afford passage to the Ferry Building and 
other points of egress, passers-by were driven to the 
task by the army boys, who did not spare their own 
hands in the work. 

Hospitals were guarded by a circle of pitying but 
inflexible soldiers, who let none pass except doctors, 
nurses and patients. Around these places gathered 
hundreds of sobbing wives, mothers, husbands and 
fathers, fearfully inquiring for the loved ones who 
might be within. They begged with tears for admit- 
tance, but the soldiers, sad but firm, turned them all 
back. 

Perhaps the greatest work of the armed forces of 
the government was in the prevention of pestilence. 
Practically all of the house to house sewerage system 
of San Francisco was destroyed. An army of two or 
three hundred thousand men encamped in the suburbs 
of a great city would ordinarily die like flies unless it 
provided itself with proper facilities for the removal 
of garbage and the general sanitary cleansing of the 
immense camp. Even with trained soldiers under 
strict discipline it is an extremely difficult thing to en- 
force sanitary regulations. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 77 

The task was undertaken with the energy and com- 
mon sense that marked all the army's work. A series 
of camps on military lines was organized as soon as 
possible. The refugees were compelled to live up to 
sanitary rules whether they liked it or not. Those 
who refused felt the prick of a bayonet. Furthermore, 
out of the tens of thousands of homeless people the 
soldiers forced as many as were needed to go to work 
for the common good, putting up shelters, erecting 
tents, devising store-houses, and creating the neces- 
sary sanitary appliances and safeguards to prevent the 
outbreak of pestilence. It was evident from the first 
that the utmost vigilance on the part of the army of- 
ficers and the most constant attention by the medical 
corps would be required to prevent an epidemic of ty- 
phoid, dysentery and the ordinary train of serious dis- 
eases which are common to large military camps, and 
which are almost inevitable when dealing with an un- 
organized mob. Immense supplies of medical neces- 
sities were forwarded from army depots, and every 
medical officer and every man in the hospital corps 
within a wide range of San Francisco was ordered to 
report at once for duty under General Funston. Many 
tons of disinfectants were brought in, and every pos- 
sible device to keep down the death rate in the camps 
was employed by the Medical Bureau, to make as good 
a record in this regard as had the Commissary and 
Quartermaster Departments in supplying food and 
shelter. 

The camps for refugees were established in Golden 
Gate Park, the Presidio, Fort Mason, Jefferson Square 
Park and several other squares and in Oakland. 



78 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Quantities of lumber and other material were donated 
and the erection of vast barracks and smaller shelters 
was begun early. Of course the food supply was the 
earliest care of the authorities. Those who were di- 
recting the relief work outside also recognized this, 
and train loads of provisions were rushed to the city 
at the first opportunity. The stream of food supplies 
was constant from that time forward, and Monday a 
special correspondent of the Chicago Record-Herald 
thus described conditions in this regard: 

" Food was never more plentiful in San Francisco 
than to-day and the only trouble is its proper distribu- 
tion. The committee on feeding the hungry reports 
the most satisfactory progress in the huge task before 
it, and has already established fifty-two stations where 
all the hungry may secure their daily rations. 

" Besides the government and the general food com- 
mittees, which are doing the most heroic work, a large 
number of independent organizations also are attack- 
ing the food problem. It is hoped that the distribu- 
tion of supplies may be systematized under one head 
in the course of a day or so, so that there may be no 
conflict or duplication of effort on such an all-impor- 
tant issue. 

" The committee of the whole has designated a sub- 
committee of seven, which is directing the relief work 
so far as food is concerned. Dr. Vorsanger is chair- 
man, J. E. Drum, vice-chairman, and Oscar F. Cooper, 
secretary. The headquarters of the bureau is in the 
City Hall at Bush and Fillmore Streets, and it is there 
that the executive functions are in operation. 

" From all points news of approaching relief trains 







« 



o s 

CO J 

5 ° 

C a 



03 



.P 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 81 

is coming in and already sufficient provisions have ac- 
cumulated on the cars at the Oakland pier to supply 
the needs of the city for more than a week. Plain 
food of every description is plentiful and luxuries are 
beginning to arrive. A coffee famine was threatened 
last night, but to-day fresh consignments of this im- 
portant stimulant are being distributed from almost 
every food depot. 

" There is an abundance of meats for stewing, 
though all the finer cuts are being used at the hospi- 
tals. Immense cattle trains are rolling northward 
from the prairies of the Southwest and chickens and 
eggs are coming from the nearby interior towns. The 
most pressing need is for vegetables, preferably pota- 
toes, carrots, onions and the like. Fresh and perish- 
able products cannot be properly cared for. 

" The lines of applicants at the various food stations 
are blocks long. Every one receives rations for a 
single person as many times a day as he asks, and an 
attempt at distribution among the helpless families is 
being made. The spirit of the people is wonderfully 
buoyant in the face of distress and neither disorder 
nor complaints are evident along the bread line. Vol- 
unteer distributors are issuing the provisions under 
military protection. 

" The committee has secured two main warehouses 
and all provisions as they reach the piers are being- 
carted there. These are the J. A. Folger Building at 
Spear and Howard Streets, which stands intact, though 
in the burned district, and the Moulder School House 
at Page and Gough Streets, which will supply that 
part of the residence district spared by the conflagra- 



82 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

tion. The headquarters for government supplies are 
at the Presidio, the Folsorn Street Dock and Fort 
Mason. Major Krauthoff, who is in charge of the fed- 
eral commissary, has ordered his subordinates to assist 
the citizens' committee to the limit of their power." 

Sunday the Pacific Mail steamer, with a cargo that 
included a large quantity of food-stuff, arrived from 
the Orient. She was docked at Oakland and the food 
she brought was distributed in the camp there. 

Mayor Mott of Oakland also took steps to prevent 
extortion, issuing the following proclamation: 

" To Whom It May Concern : The City Govern- 
ment requests that lodgings and food supplies be of- 
fered for sale at usual rates, notwithstanding the pres- 
ent calamity. 

" An especial appeal is made to hotels, lodging- 
houses, grocers, butchers, restaurant-keepers and sell- 
ers of breadstufls and supplies. 

" In the event of exorbitant prices being demanded 
for lodgings or food supplies, the military authorities 
will be given power, under proper direction, to take 
into possession said lodging-houses or supplies, com- 
pensation for the same to be determined later by the 
courts. This is important. " 

The water problem was more difficult of solution. 
The city was supplied by the Spring Valley Water 
Company, and experts reported Saturday that there 
was enough water in the company's reservoirs to sup- 
ply the city at the regular rate of 35,000,000 gallons a 
day for 600 days. But the difficulty lay in getting this 
supply into the city. However, some of the pipes were 
repaired hastily, so that 6,000,000 gallons daily were 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 83 

brought in, and then the work of restoring the mains 
was taken up systematically and carried on with ex- 
pedition. For this task Oakland furnished an engi- 
neering corps. 

Throughout all these trying days there was the ut- 
most harmony and accord between the military and 
civil authorities. Mayor Eugene Schmitz was glad 
to yield supreme command to General Funston, but 
he did not in the least abate his own efforts. Day and 
night he labored for his city and its people, and he 
was ably seconded by all the other civic officers. 

At an early hour Wednesday the mayor named the 
following citizens as a general committee of safety: 
James D. Phelan, Herbert Law, Thomas Maggee, 
Charles Fee, W. P. Herrin, Thornwell Mullally, Gar- 
ret W. McEnerney, W. H. Leahy, J. Downey Harvey, 
Jeremiah Dinan, John J. Mahoney, Henry T. Scott, I. 
W. Hellman, George A. Knight, Ig. Steinhart, S. G. 
Murphy, Homer King, Frank Anderson, W. J. Bart- 
nett, John Martin, Allan Pollock, Mark Gerstle, H. V. 
Ramsdell, W. G. Harrison, R. A. Crothers, Paul 
Cowles, M. H. De Young, Claus Spreckels, Rudolph 
Spreckels, C. W. Fay, John McNaught, Dent Robert, 
Thomas Garrett, Frank Shea, James Reed, Robert 
Pisis, T. P. Woodward, Howard Holmes, George Dill- 
man, J. B. Rogers, David Rich, H. T. Cresswell, J. A. 
Howell, Frank Maestretti, Clem Tobin, George Tou- 
rney, E. B. Pond, George A. Newhall, and William 
Watson. 

Other committees were appointed as the need arose, 
and the members of all of them, utterly disregarding 



34 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

their personal losses, labored nobly and untiringly for 
the common good. 

Several days after the earthquake a vigilance com- 
mittee was formed, the first of its kind in San Fran- 
cisco for half a century. The leader was Dr. Donald 
McCulloch Gedge, who served in the French army and 
in the United States navy and fought in the China war. 
His chief of staff was ex-Auditor Harry Baehr. 

The organized work of restoring order and carmg 
for the refugees had many branches, undertaken by as 
many interests. The Red Cross and White Cross First 
Aid Associations, the Associated Charities of the city 
and other societies all did their share. A committee 
representing the Japanese Relief Society devoted its 
efforts largely to caring for the destitute Japanese in 
the city and to collecting funds from the Japanese in 
the other cities along the coast. 

The care of the Chinese colony received special at- 
tention. President Roosevelt asked that the Chinese 
be given relief, as well as other nationalities, and a 
separate camp was established for the Orientals, where 
their peculiar needs were given attention, under the 
direction of their leading representatives. 

The San Francisco Real Estate Board took meas- 
ures for the protection of tenants who had suffered 
through the fire, and steps were taken to secure a re- 
mission of any penalty imposed upon taxpayers for 
non-payment of the second installment of taxes for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1906. 

In order to facilitate financial matters and give the 
banks time to get the gold and silver out of their 
vaults, Governor Pardee declared Thursday, Friday 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 85 

and Saturday public holidays. Legal business was 
resumed Wednesday, April 24, the superior judges 
opening their twelve departments in a Jewish syna- 
gogue at California and Webster Streets. 

The postoffice resumed business in a way two days 
after the earthquake, though its building was prac- 
tically ruined. For some time letters from San Fran- 
cisco were sent through the mails without postage, 
and registered mail was held in the Oakland office. 

By Sunday the stricken city even had a measure of 
street car transportation. Electric cars were running 
on Fillmore Street, the service being free. Other lines 
were soon reopened with horse cars. There was plenty 
of coal in the city, also, in docks and on board vessels 
in the harbor. 

Monday Major-General Greely arrived and assumed 
general command. This change, however, did not re- 
flect in the slightest on General Funston nor mate- 
rially lessen his duties. His prompt and vigorous 
measures for the restoration of order, and the protec- 
tion he gave the public in its most trying hours, had 
made him the idol of the community and he received 
the warm recognition and approval of the War De- 
partment. The same day, so much progress having 
been made, the Citizens' Relief Committee requested 
Governor Pardee to withdraw the State Militia from 
the city. No dissatisfaction with the state troops was 
conveyed in the request; on the contrary, due recog- 
nition was accorded the splendid service the militia 
had performed in guarding the interests of the public. 
But the committee was confident that while the fed- 



86 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

eral troops remained on duty there was no necessity 
for additional forces other than the city police. 

Many hundreds of persons abandoned San Fran- 
cisco for good as soon as they could find means to get 
away, and the authorities encouraged this movement, 
at the same time trying to check the stream of mere 
sight-seers that began to flow from all points. Plans 
were laid to give immediate occupation to large num- 
bers of men at other places. C. B. Stewart, labor com- 
missioner of the Western Pacific Railroad Company, 
offered steady employment to 3,000 men; E. B. and A. 
L. Stone had work for 1,500, and dozens of similar 
offers were received and accepted. However, so 
prompt was the movement toward clearing up the ruins 
and rebuilding the city that it was evident San Fran- 
cisco would soon need all the labor available. 

One week from the day of the earthquake the han- 
dling of supplies and relief funds had been reduced to 
a system. President Roosevelt paved the way for this 
harmonious arrangement by issuing the following proc- 
lamation: 

" TO THE PUBLIC:— When the news of the dread- 
ful disaster at San Francisco first came it was neces- 
sary to take immediate steps to provide in some way 
for the receipt and distribution of the sums of money 
which at once poured in for the relief of the people of 
San Francisco. At the moment no one could foretell 
how soon it would be possible for the people of San 
Francisco themselves to organize, and to tide over the 
interval the American National Red Cross Association 
was designated to receive and disburse the funds. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 87 

" But the people of San Francisco, with an energy 
and self-reliant courage, a cool resourcefulness and a 
capacity for organized and orderly endeavor which are 
beyond all praise, have already met the need, through 
committees appointed by the mayor of the city, ex- 
Mayor James D. Phelan being chairman of the finance 
committee. The work of these committees has been 
astonishing in its range, promptness and efficiency. 
As I am informed by Major General Greely, although 
all local transportation was destroyed, as well as prac- 
tically every supply store in the city, these local com- 
mittees, with the help of the army, have succeeded in 
caring for 300,000 homeless people in the last five days. 

" Thanks to their efforts, no individual is now suffer- 
ing severely for food, water or temporary shelter. This 
work has been done with the minimum of waste and 
under conditions which would have appalled men less 
trained in business methods, endowed with less ability, 
or inspired with any but the highest motives of human- 
ity and helpfulness. The need of employing the Red 
Cross, save as an auxiliary, has passed, and I urge that 
hereafter all contributions from any source be sent di- 
rect to James D. Phelan, chairman finance committee, 
San Francisco. Mr. Devine of the Red Cross will dis- 
burse any contributions sent to him through ex-Mayor 
Phelan and will work in accord with him in all ways. 
" THEODORE ROOSEVELT/' 

At a conference attended by Secretary of Commerce 
Metcalf, Major General Greely, General Funston, Dr. 
Edward Devine, the President's Red Cross agent, May- 
or Schmitz and representatives of all the local com- 



88 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

mittees, it was agreed that all relief funds given by 
congress and the people should be handled by James 
D. Phelan and the local finance committee. 

The policing of the city and the care of camps and 
hospitals was given over entirely to the army. 

It was agreed, further, that the army should have 
sole charge of the distribution of food, and at noon on 
April 26th the fifty-eight relief stations were taken over 
by the quartermaster's department. After that no 
free distribution of food was made through any other 
agency. 

The self-constituted vigilance committees and pro- 
tective committees were ordered to disband at once, 
and Mayor Schmitz announced that all " vigilantes " 
found patrolling the streets with arms would be dis- 
armed and, if they resisted, treated as looters and shot 
without ceremony. There had been much complaint 
of unwarranted shooting and arbitrary conduct on the 
part of these " protective committees." One of them 
was held responsible for the death of Major Tilden, 
who was killed while doing relief work. 

Causes of friction thus being removed and tangles 
straightened out, the mighty task of bringing order 
out of chaos went forward smoothly and rapidly. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE HEART OF THE WORLD IS STIRRED 

Millions of Dollars for Relief of the Stricken City — 
Trains of Provisions Rushed from Sacramento and 
Los Angeles While the Fire Rages — The National 
Government Makes Available a Million Dollars for 
the Homeless — New York Subscribes $500,000 the 
First Day — Chicago, Remembering Its Own Holo- 
caust, Quickened to Heroic Action — Every City of 
the Country Swells the Relief Fund — Even the Poor 
Give Liberally from Their Slender Store — The Na- 
tions of the Earth Send Messages of Sympathy. 

Never in the history of the world was there such 
prompt and universal response to the calls for mercy 
as those which followed the first announcement of the 
earthquake at San Francisco. Before the results of 
the first shocks were known, and when the full extent 
of the loss was not dreamed of, individuals and cities 
were at work collecting money and provisions to be 
forwarded to the sufferers. Railroads and express 
companies offered at once to transport free everything 
that could in any way relieve the terrible situation. 
Relief committees comprising the wealthiest and most 
influential citizens of the commonwealth were formed 
with surprising alacrity. Governors issued proclama- 
tions calling upon their states to inaugurate the work 
of relief and legislatures rushed through bills to ap- 

89 



90 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

propriate sums of money to be immediately available 
for use in the doomed city. 

Mayor Eugene E. Schmitz of San Francisco was 
deluged with telegrams asking for instructions re- 
garding the kind of contributions most necessary at 
the moment. The governor of California proclaimed 
a legal holiday and called upon all the people of the 
state to lend their energies to alleviate as far as pos- 
sible the helpless victims of force and fire. 

The public response to the appeals for aid that came 
from San Francisco was remarkable. The people of 
San Francisco still were fleeing from trie flames that 
consumed their homes and destroyed all their posses- 
sions, when the first relief train, the advance guard of 
countless others now en route and still to come, 
reached the city and temporarily placed the sufferers 
beyond the reach of want. 

The disaster inspired the American people to reach 
out a helping hand to the homeless and suffering vic- 
tims of the calamity. Within twenty-four hours after 
the first news of the catastrophe was received money 
had been subscribed and steps taken for the collection 
of funds in every city, town and hamlet in the country. 

The celerity with which Congress appropriated 
$1,000,000 in aid of the sufferers and which, three days 
later, was followed by a second appropriation of $1,- 
500,000, commanded the admiration of the civilized 
world. 

In this promptness the country was not lacking. 
The day following the disaster a train laden with sup- 
plies of every description, arranged for by telegraph 
by William Randolph Hearst, arrived in Oakland from 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 91 

Sacramento, the capital city of California. This was 
followed in quick succession by other Hearst relief 
trains, many more being sent to the devastated city. 

Meanwhile, committees to raise funds were organ- 
ized in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cin- 
cinnati, New Orleans, Pittsburg, Seattle, Portland and 
every city of prominence in the United States. New 
York and Chicago set themselves to the task of rais- 
ing $1,000,000 each, and these great sums were realized 
in less than ten days in both cities. 

In the smaller cities and towns the public-spirited 
citizens were equally busy, and everywhere the cry 
"Give! Give!" arose. The response surpassed every 
expectation, and the grand results were a fitting testi- 
monial to the worth of a people who are willing to un- 
dergo any sacrifice to aid their countrymen in distress. 
The generous spirit manifested at every turn exhib- 
ited itself in the numerous novel methods adopted to 
insure the success of the national relief movement. 
Benefit performances of every description sprang up 
at once throughout the country, the proceeds of which 
were forwarded to San Francisco. The theatrical peo- 
ple in the larger cities did noble work in advancing 
the great cause. No labor was deemed too onerous 
by the Thespians. 

The press throughout the country became prime fac- 
tors in the relief movement and nearly every news- 
paper of note organized its own corps of workers and 
ope.:: 1 subscription lists. Every legitimate plan 
which had for its end the swelling of the relief fund 
was given due attention and all the newspapers by the 



92 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

weight of their influence accomplished results which, 
in the light of developments, astound the world. 

In New York men of wealth and prominence did 
not disdain to sell newspapers at street corners for 
prices ranging from 10 cents to $100. Prominent so- 
ciety women, patrolling the city in their automobiles, 
sold tickets to entertainments at any price that was 
offered, the proceeds being turned over to the Red 
Cross and other Relief Funds. 

In Chicago the same enthusiastic spirit was mani- 
fested. The best known stars of the theatrical world, 
including Sarah Bernhardt, Mrs. Leslie Carter, Julia 
Marlowe, E. H. Sothern, Robert Loraine, and others, 
vied with lesser known actors in the work of swelling 
the relief fund. Even the school children robbed their 
little banks of their savings and without a sigh of re- 
gret added their mites to the larger sums raised to 
provide food and raiment for the sufferers across the 
western slope. 

While the American people were responding to the 
call of duty, the people abroad were not inactive. In 
London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and other continental 
cities, where Americans annually spend huge sums, re- 
lief funds were started and were generously added to 
from day to day. The ready response made by the 
people of this country to aid the victims of the Vesu- 
vius calamity was not forgotten, and from all the capi- 
tals of Europe came the cheering news that substan- 
tial funds would be forwarded to the sufferers in Cali- 
fornia. 

It was estimated that sums far in excess of $10,000,- 
000 would be forwarded to San Francisco within two 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 93 

months following the earthquake, and that the work 
of raising funds would continue until every homeless 
man, woman and child in California be provided with 
sustenance and shelter. 

The thought of how long a period might elapse be- 
fore conditions surrounding the homeless people would 
become normal and they be once more in a position to 
help themselves was not even considered by the gen- 
erous American people who were engaged in the relief 
work. Their only thought was to furnish help and 
to keep the work going until the sufferers themselves 
should say enough. 

William Randolph Hearst, himself the victim of 
large financial losses, turned the whole force of his 
chain of papers over to the work of securing and 
transporting immediate provisions and money. He 
sent the first two train loads of provisions into the 
city, one from Sacramento, and one from Los Angeles. 
M. Guggenheim's Sons of New York on the first day 
of the quake telegraphed General Funston, who had 
taken military possession of the city, $50,000 to be 
used at once at the general's discretion. 

Foreign countries were no less quick to offer sym- 
pathy and express a willingness to join the United 
States with material assistance if it should be needed. 
In London there were public meetings of churches, 
Good Templar and many other societies, at which were 
adopted expressions of sorrow at the calamity and 
deep sympathy with the bereaved and injured. The 
American embassy was besieged for news of the catas- 
trophe and the offices of the Associated Press invaded 



94 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

by those having relatives or friends in the region of 
the great earthquake. 

The American Society summoned its members by 
telegraph to attend a meeting to discuss steps to assist 
the sufferers. Ambassador Reid presided. Mr. Reid 
was in receipt of numerous telegrams, including one 
from the Lord Mayor of London and another from 
the premier, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, which 
he immediately forwarded to the State Department at 
Washington. One hundred thousand dollars was 
subscribed for the sufferers at the meeting. 

John E. Redmond telegraphed to Mayor Schmitz 
of San Francisco on behalf of the Irish party and na- 
tion an expression of sympathy and mourning. 

Emperor William sent a cablegram to President 
Roosevelt expressing the sympathy of Germany with 
the American public over the terrible catastrophe which 
had occurred in San Francisco and vicinity. 

The details of the San Francisco disaster were ca- 
bled to King Edward, who immediately ordered a 
cable message sent to President Roosevelt expressing 
his sorrow at the dire calamity. 

The catastrophe in San Francisco aroused an emo- 
tion in France which has not been equaled since the 
Martinique volcanic eruption. The newspapers were 
filled with all the news obtainable of the disaster, add- 
ing comments of extreme sympathy for America and 
her affliction. 

When the news of the San Francisco earthquake 
reached the Vatican the Pope immediately cabled his 
blessing and expressed his sympathy with the people 
of the stricken city. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 95 

Further expressions of condolence and sympathy 
were sent to President Roosevelt from all parts of the 
world. 

The president of Guatemala said: "I am deeply 
grieved by the catastrophe at San Francisco. The 
president of Guatemala sends to the people of the 
United States through your eminence his expression 
of the most sincere grief, with the confidence that in 
such a lamentable misfortune the indomitable spirit of 
your people will newly manifest itself — that spirit 
which, if great in prosperity, is equally great in time 
of trial." 

President of Mexico: "Will your excellency be so 
kind as to accept the expression of my profound and 
deep sympathy with the American people on account 
of the disaster at San Francisco, which has so affected 
the American people?" 

President of Brazil: "I do myself the honor of 
sending to you the expression of the profound grief 
with which the government and people of the United 
States of Brazil have read the news of the great mis- 
fortune which has occurred at San Francisco/' 

Emperor of Japan : " With assurances of the deep- 
est and heartiest sympathy for the sufferers by the 
terrible earthquake." 

King Leopold of Belgium: " I must express to you 
the deep sympathy which I feel in the mourning which 
the terrible disaster at San Francisco is causing the 
whole American people." 

President of Cuba: "In the name of the govern- 
ment and people of Cuba, I assure you of the deep 
grief and sympathy with which they have heard of 



96 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the great misfortune which has overtaken San Fran- 
cisco." 

Kirkpatrick, acting premier of New Zealand: 
" South Australia deplores the appalling disaster which 
has befallen the State of California and extends heart- 
felt sympathy to sufferers." 

Viceroy of India: " My deepest sympathy with you 
and people of United States in terrible catastrophe at 
San Francisco." 

Governor Talbot of Victoria, Australia: "On be- 
half of the people of Victoria, I beg to offer our heart- 
felt sympathy with the United States on the terrible 
calamity at San Francisco." 

President of Switzerland: "The Federal Council 
is profoundly affected by the terrible catastrophe which 
has visited San Francisco and other California cities, 
and I beg you to receive the sincere expressions of its 
regret and the sympathy of the Swiss people as a whole, 
who join in the mourning of a sister republic." 

Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria: "I beg to as- 
sure you, Mr. President, of my most sincere sympathy 
with your land in its sorrow because of the terrible 
earthquake at San Francisco, and I beg to offer you 
personally, Mr. President, my heartfelt condolences." 

Prince Henry of Prussia: "Remembering Amer- 
ican hospitality, which is still so fresh in my memory, 
I hereby wish to express my deepest sympathy on be- 
half of the terrible catastrophe which has befallen the 
thriving city of San Francisco and which has destroyed 
so many valuable lives therein. Still hope that news 
is greatly exaggerated." 

Premier Bent of South Wales: " New South Wales 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 97 

and Victoria sympathize with California suffering dis- 
aster." 

Count Witte: " The Russian members of the Ports- 
mouth Conference, profoundly moved by the sad tid- 
ings of the calamity that has befallen the American 
people, whose hospitality they recently enjoyed, beg 
your excellency to accept and to transmit to citizens 
of United States the expression of their profound and 
heartfelt sympathy." 

Among the men whose largess was most princely 
was James D. Phelan, ex-Mayor of San Francisco, who 
donated $1,000,000, the largest individual donation 
ever made for charity. He was also one of the heavi- 
est losers in the fall of the city. John D. Rockefeller 
gave $100,000, C. J. Burbage, Boston, $100,000; Will- 
iam Waldorf Astor, $100,000; Andrew Carnegie, $100,- 
000. The total contributions on Sunday, April 22, 
four days after the quake, amounted to more than 
$10,000,000. History is without a parallel in the 
prompt and generous responses to the appeals for aid 
in this instance. The generosity of the American 
people has never been excelled, but it would seem to 
have grown with the same surprising vigor and 
strength as that manifested in the nation itself. The 
property loss to San Francisco was variously estimated 
at from $390,000,000 to $420,000,000. It is beyond be- 
lief that such a vast sum could be restored to the city 
through contributions. Yet, had the same spirit that 
prompted the world to pour out its treasure during 
the first few days following the disaster continued to 
govern for a few weeks the whole property loss of the 
Golden Gate City might have been returned. 



98 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

It would be impossible to enumerate in one vol- 
ume of natural size the number and extent of the relief 
associations that were formed almost on the instant 
and worked from the start with wonderful unanimity 
and order. Hardly a hamlet in the confines of the 
Union but had its relief committee. Not a newspaper 
of note but what opened its columns to subscriptions, 
and proffered continued assistance in locating missing 
friends and relatives in the ruined city. 

The big railroads were no longer "soulless corpora- 
tions." Instead, they were not only winged messen- 
gers of mercy, but they were messengers of colossal 
strength and bore in their giant arms thousands of 
tons of food and clothing for the starving and naked. 
They did this without money and without price. 
From New York to San Francisco ; from the north and 
south everywhere could be seen speeding the long 
trains bearing the grateful banner, " Relief Train for 
the San Francisco Sufferers. " All freight and passen- 
ger traffic had to give the right of way to these relief 
trains, that ran at top speed and halted only for nec- 
essary coal and water to keep the engines going. 

The express companies were no less liberal and car- 
ried everything offered that could in any way alleviate 
the sufferings, or strengthen the hopes of the desti- 
tute, huddled in the parks of San Francisco. 

The Red Cross Society sent hundreds of nurses and 
many physicians, and the White Cross Society hur- 
ried from Chicago in a special train twenty-five doc- 
tors and seventy-five nurses. The government ordered 
its military stores shipped from all points to the De- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 99 

partment of the Pacific, and they were there issued to 
the people as they would have been to an army of 
recruits. 

Both the Salvation Army and the Volunteers did a 
noble work, not only in helping to take care of the 
people on the ground, but on every street corner of 
every city stood the big-bonneted lassies beside boxes 
for receiving contributions for the big relief fund. 

Actors, artists, authors, architects, bankers, me- 
chanics and laborers of all kinds and conditions of soci- 
ety elected committees and instituted proceedings look- 
ing toward the collection of money and supplies to be 
forwarded to their brothers and sisters in the Golden 
Gate city. 

The whole world seemed to have been suddenly trans- 
formed into a mission of charity wherein every individ- 
ual was actively engaged in some endeavor for the 
comfort and assistance of the people made so sud- 
denly homeless and destitute. 

To stand still for one minute and contemplate the 
earth as a great ampitheatre with all its inhabitants 
flinging of their wealth or their poverty, as the case 
might be, flinging freely to that one spot where a beau- 
tiful city lay prostrate and numb from terror and de- 
spair was to understand that beautiful prayer of Oliver 
Wendell Holmes which here had a practical answer: 

" God of the universe, shield us and guide us, 

Trusting Thee always through shadow and sun ; 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us; 
Keep us, O keep us, the Many in One/' 

•uOFC. 



100 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

And though the vision of all that goodness may fade 
again into the sordid struggle that must still govern 
mankind, the memory of it will remain to soften and 
subdue the heart of the world. 



CHAPTER VII 

PEN PICTURES OF DESOLATION 

Scenes Amid the Ruins — Remnant of City Like Cres- 
cent Moon Set About Black Disk of Shadows — Dole- 
ful Streams of Refugees — -Horrors Breed Insanity — 
Drunken Orgies Held by Denizens of " The Barbary 
Coast " — Soldiers Sternly Enforce Martial Law — 
Disobedience Brings Instant Death. 

Vivid portrayals of the scenes and incidents in the 
ruined city and among the refugees encamped in the 
parks and outskirts were contained in the dispatches of 
special newspaper correspondents sent during the days 
immediately following the disaster. These men were 
all trained observers and dramatic and pathetic hap- 
penings did not escape their eyes. Here is what a 
correspondent of the Chicago Tribune saw on Friday, 
April 20: 

"All that is left of the proud Argonaut city is like 
a crescent moon set about a black disk of shadow. A 
Saharan desolation of blackened, ash covered, twisted 
debris is all that remains of three-fifths of the city that 
three days ago stood like a sentinel in glittering, jew- 
eled armor, guarding the Golden Gate to the Pacific. 

" Men who yesterday numbered their fortunes in the 
tens of thousands to-day camp on the ruins of their 
homes, eating as primitive men ate — gnawing; think- 
ing as primitive men thought. Ashes and the dull 

101 



102 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

pain of despair are their portions. They seem not to 
have the volition to help themselves; childlike as the 
men of the stone age, they wait quiescent what the 
next hour may bring them. 

" Last night the people of San Francisco slept out 
of doors. Fear they had none, because they had known 
the shape of fear for thirty-six hours and to them it 
had no more terrors. Men overworked to the break- 
ing point and women unnerved by hysteria dropped 
down on the cooling ashes and slept where they lay, 
for had they not seen the tall steel skyscrapers burn 
like a torch? Had they not beheld the cataracts of 
flames fleeting unhindered up the broad avenues, and 
over the solid blocks of the city? 

" Fire had become a commonplace. Fear of fire had 
been blunted by their terrible suffering, and although 
the soldiers roused the sleepers and warned them 
against possible approaching flames, they would only 
yawn, wrap their blanket about them and stolidly move 
on to find some other place where they might drop and 
again slumber like men dead. 

" Past these huddled groups of sleepers an unending 
stream of refugees was seen wending their way to the 
ferry, dragging trunks over the uneven pavement by 
ropes tethered to wheelbarrows laden with the house- 
hold lares and penates. These bowed figures crept 
about the water and ruins and looked like the ghosts 
about the ruins of Troy, and unheeding save where in- 
stinct prompted them to make a detour about some 
still burning heap of ruins. 

" At the ferry the sleepers lay in windrows, each 
man resting his head upon some precious treasure that 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 103 

he had brought from his home. No one was able 
to fear thieves or to escape pillage, because of abso- 
lute physical inertia forced upon him. 

" Mad, wholly stark mad, are some of the unfortu- 
nates who have still not fled from the ruins. In many 
instances the soldiers have been forced to tear men 
and women away from the bodies of their dead. Yes- 
terday afternoon two women were stopped within a 
distance of a few blocks and forced to give up the 
dead bodies of their babies, which they were nursing 
to their bosoms. 

" At 2 o'clock this morning a newsgatherer passing 
through Portsmouth Square noticed a mother cower- 
ing under a bush. She was singing in a quavering 
voice a lullaby to her baby. The reporter parted the 
bushes and looked in. Then he saw that what she 
held in her arms was only a mangled and reddened 
bit of flesh. The baby had been crushed when the 
shock of earthquake came and its mother did not know 
that its life had left it thirty hours before. 

" Now that law and order are strained a crew of hell 
rats have crept out of their holes and in the flamelight 
plunder and revel in bacchanalian orgies like the in- 
famous intimates of Javert in ' Les Miserables.' These 
denizens of the sewer traps and purlieus of ' The Bar- 
bary Coast ' now exult in unbounded joy of doing evil. 

" Sitting crouched among the ruins or sprawling on 
the still warm pavement they may be seen brutally 
drunk. A demijohn of wine placed on a convenient 
corner of some ruin is a shrine at which they worship. 
They toast chunks of sausage over the dying coals of 
the cooling ruin even as they drink, and their songs 



104: THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of revelry are echoed from wall to wall down in the 
burnt Mission District. 

" Some of the bedizened women of the half world 
have erected tents and champagne may be had for the 
asking, although water has its price. It was yester- 
day that one of these women, dressed in pink silk with 
high heeled satin slippers on her feet, walked down 
the length of what had been Natoma street with a 
bucket of water and a dipper, and she gave the precious 
fluid freely to those stricken ones huddled there by 
their household goods and who had not tasted water 
in twenty-four hours. 

" ' Let them drink and be happy/ said she, ' water 
tastes better than beer to them now.' 

" The famine problem is rapidly become a serious 
one. At the present time a loaf of bread costs a dollar, 
and a scrap of meat which well might be called cat's 
meat, brings fifty cents. The refugees subsist on dried 
breakfast food not moistened with milk, and upon 
canned vegetables and fruits. 

" One genius secured a frying pan and succeeded in 
toasting some slabs of potatoes in tallow, mixed with 
a little precious butter. These he was selling yester- 
day at the price of ten cents per slab, and he had left 
not a half sack of potatoes with the possibility of hav- 
ing recourse to candles for frying purposes. 

" Three stations for the homeless have been estab- 
lished by the general relief committee and to these sta- 
tions there were being carried yesterday morning con- 
fiscated stores from grocery stores. 

" Oakland, across the bay, has done yeoman work in 
rushing supplies to San Francisco. The steamer J. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 105 

D. Peters, loaded with flour and with meats from Sac- 
ramento, dropped down the river yesterday and dis- 
charged the cargo at the Folsom Street wharf, where 
already crowds of refugees had gathered and were re- 
ceiving food under the direction of officers of the relief 
committee. 

" Down near the railroad tracks at what used to be 
Townsend Street, food was mined from the ruins yes- 
terday as a result of a fortuitous discovery made by 
Ben Campbell, a negro. Campbell, while in search of 
possible treasure, located the ruins of a grocery ware- 
house, which turned out to be a veritable oven of plenty. 
People gathered to this place and picked up oysters, 
canned asparagus, beans, and fruit all done to a turn 
and ready for serving. Now they are using pick han- 
dles as divining rods and are searching diligently for 
more of these mines of plenty. 

" The people of San Francisco are taking account of 
what is left in the wilderness of ruins. The steel re- 
mains of the Call Building and Hotel St. Francis, the 
Flood Building, and every skyscraper still stand with 
the shell of stone almost intact. 

" The interior of the magnificent new postoffice 
building is cleaned out by the flames and is believed to 
be past repair. Down in Jackson Street, by some 
freak of the flames, the old appraisers' building, erected 
twenty-five years ago, still stands a lonesome monu- 
ment in all the dreary mass of fallen walls. 

" The Ferry Building, at the foot of Market Street, 
was badly wrenched by the earthquake, but not touched 
by the flames, and all the ferry slips, as well as their 
wharves, extending from Vallejo Street to Folsom, 



106 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

have been spared by the fire. The Market Street Bank 
Building withstood the shock of both quakes and 
flames and is the only structure in the whole length of 
that thoroughfare from the City Hall to the ferry which 
presents itself. 

' The federal mint has been damaged by the earth- 
quake, but is practically intact and will need little re- 
pairing. 

" San Francisco is still under martial law. General 
Fred Funston is commanding, and this regime has 
proven effective in subduing anarchy and preventing 
the depredations of looters. A detail of troops helps 
the police to guard the streets and remove people to 
places of safety. 

" The martial law which General Funston dispenses 
is the sternest. They have no records existing of the 
number of executions which have been meted out to 
offenders. It is known that more than one sneaking 
vandal has suffered both for disobedience of the injunc- 
tion given against entering deserted houses. 

" At the present Gen. Funston has the situation thor- 
oughly in hand and there is no immediate possibility 
of the reign of disorder. 

" There is a sharp, business-like precision about the 
American soldier that has stood San Francisco in good 
stead in these last three days. The San Francisco 
water rat thug and ' Barbary coast ' pirate may flout 
a policeman, but he has discovered since Wednesday 
morning that he cannot disobey a man who wears 
Uncle Sam's uniform without imminent risk of being 
counted in that abstract mortuary list usually desig- 
nated as ' unknown dead/ 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 107 

" For instance: Yesterday, when Nob Hill was the 
crest of a huge wave of flame, soldiers were directing 
the work of saving the priceless art treasures from the 
Mark Hopkins Institute. 

" Lieut. C. C. McMillan of the revenue cutter Bear 
impressed volunteers at the point of a pistol to assist 
in saving the priceless art treasures which the building 
housed. 

" ' Here, you/ barked Lieut. McMillan to the great 
crowd of dazed men, ' get in there and carry out those 
paintings/ 

" ' What business have you got to order us about? ' 
said a burly citizen with the jowl of a Bill Sykes. 

" The lieutenant gave a significant hitch to his arm 
and the burly man saw a revolver was hanging from 
the forefinger of the lieutenant's right hand. 

" ' Look here/ said the lieutenant. ' You see this 
gun? Well, I think it is aimed at your right eye. 
Now, come here. I want to have a little talk with 
you/ 

" The tough stared for a moment and then the shade 
of fear crept over his face, and with an ' All right, boss/ 
he started in upon the labor of recovering the art treas- 
ures from the institute. 

" 'This is martial law/ said the determined lieuten- 
ant. ' I don't like it, you may not like it, but it goes. 
I think that is understood/ " 

C. E. Van Loan of the Chicago American went 
through the great camp of refugees in Golden Gate 
Park Saturday and told of the scenes of pathos, humor 
and bravery there. 

" The vast encampment was astir early this morn- 



108 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ing," he wrote. " All the open spaces have been util- 
ized; lawns are covered with rude shelter tents. 
Women wrapped in costly opera cloaks shivered over 
small fires, while the men went out to forage for fire- 
wood or to join the broad long lines in Eddy Street. 

" The most amazing thing — the thing which strikes 
the newcomer — is the spirit of this homeless people. 
They make a jest of misfortune — they turn a calamity 
into a wayside comedy. 

" One man managed to save a small upright piano. 
How he ever got it into the park panhandle is a mys- 
tery. On a crackerbox, he gives impromptu ragtime 
concerts. His favorite selection is ' Home Ain't Noth- 
ing Like This/ and thousands of homeless ones within 
the sound of the piano seem to appreciate the grim 
joke. 

"At the Stanyan Street entrance a woman has 
erected a tent — four sticks with a damask table cloth 
spread over them. Her furnishings consist of several 
articles of wearing apparel tied in a sheet and a canary 
in a cage. Over the entrance is the sign : ' Your for- 
tune told — cheap/ 

" One man has a tepee of evergreen boughs and he 
sits inside, the proud possessor of the only silk hat in 
the Panhandle and a banjo with broken strings. Three 
days ago that man had a wife and a comfortable home. 
Now he toasts bacon over a fire and eats it with his 
fingers. If he can locate his wife he will be perfectly 
happy. 

" One man wanted to know whether the fire had 
reached his home. He was informed that there was 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 109 

not a house standing in that section of the city. He 
shrugged his shoulders and whistled. 

" ' There's lot of others in the same boat/ he said, as 
he turned away. 

" And those men who have lost everything are plan- 
ning to begin all over again. 

" ' Going to build? ' repeated one man who lost fam- 
ily and home inside of two hours. ' Of course I am. 
They tell me that the money in the banks is all right 
and I have some insurance. Fifteen years ago I began 
with these/ showing his hands, ' and I guess I'm game 
to do it over again. Build again? Well I wonder/ 

" These little things show the spirit with which the 
people of San Francisco have faced the worst that the 
fates could send. They are down but not out. The 
spirit of '49 lives and moves among those tattered 
refugees and no loss can crush it out. 

" The park is under military rule. Armed guards 
are everywhere, and while there have been hundreds 
of rumors of shootings because of lawless acts, actual 
cases are very rare. At 7:30 all fires must be extin- 
guished in the park. One negro lit a cigarette and 
refused to put it out when ordered to do so. 

" ' Put it out or I'll shoot it out/ said the soldier, 
leveling his revolver. And the negro put it out. 

" The badge of the Red Cross admits everywhere. 
Automobiles fly it, women wear it on their arms or 
their hats and the guard lines are always opened to 
them. It is a better pass than the card bearing the 
signature of Governor Pardee, for those men and 
women of the Red Cross are doing a noble work and 
fighting down thousands of difficulties. 



110 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

" The officers are still seizing vehicles and pressing 
them into service. Down on the water front a naval 
lieutenant seized two carriages. They were ordered 
to transfer a corps of nurses to a hospital in the un- 
burned district. 

" ' But this is my carriage/ said one of the drivers. 
' Show me your authority for holding me up like this.' 

" ' The only authority I can show you is this/ said 
the officer showing his pistol; ' isn't that enough? ' 

" San Francisco is no place for the curiosity seeker. 
The work of clearing the car tracks on Market Street 
began at dawn this morning. Every idle man was 
pressed into service. Most of them went without argu- 
ment. 

" Opposite the ruins of the City Hall a husky ser- 
geant had a squad of fifty citizens pitching bricks out 
of the middle of the street. 

"'Ain't they doing fine?' asked he with a broad 
grin. ' I've got the Chief of Police from Milpitas, or 
somewhere, in there throwing bricks. He told me who 
he was, but I " persuaded " him. He's doing well. 
We'll have this street open clear to the ferry before 
night.' 

" But there are thousands of willing workers who 
do not need any ' persuasion.' They are anxious to 
do anything to improve the situation. They toil like 
beavers and never stop until that particular bit of work 
is finished. 

' The people still in the unburned district are begin- 
ning to realize the danger of building fires in the houses. 
Every house has its little brick oven out in the street. 
There the meals are cooked. Those who have food 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER HI 

share it with their* neighbors, and as yet there has been 
no actual hunger except in isolated cases. " 

Sitting in his office in Oakland, a telegraph operator 
who was looking across the harbor at San Francisco 
gave to an operator at the other end of the wire in New 
York a vivid description of the appearance of the burn- 
ing city. 

" The roar of dynamite from the other side of the 
harbor is almost deafening at times," ticked the Oak- 
land operator. " They are attempting to blast out 
pathways in the city blocks wherever the fire threat- 
ens, in order to check its spread. San Francisco is 
at times enveloped in smoke, and when it lifts we can 
see the flames of burning buildings and occasionally 
the timbers flying from a dynamite explosion. Almost 
all activity except that of dynamiting appears to have 
ceased. 

" The shocks here are continuous, some of them 
being quite severe. They have gotten on the people's 
nerves so that whenever the earth trembles almost 
everyone who is under roof rushes out of doors. Many 
of the buildings in San Francisco were so badly dam- 
aged by this morning's shock that they are a peril to 
whoever enters them during the continuance of the 
earthquake shocks. 

" Some time ago a message was received from the 
Western Union headquarters in San Francisco that 
they would have to vacate the building because it was 
to be blown up with dynamite. Immediately after this 
communication with the office ceased, and an operator 
who volunteered to go from another office to see what 
the trouble was failed to return to his wire. Com- 



112 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

munication was also interrupted with the ferry-house 
in which the Western Union established wires, and 
from Oakland it appeared that the ferry-house had been 
damaged by a dynamite explosion. " 

All the letters and dispatches out of the city were 
filled with a curious mixture of comedy and tragedy, 
showing the intellect of the survivors to be tried to 
the verge of collapse. It was days before they re- 
sumed a normal attitude toward anything. 




CHINATOWN, SAN FRANCISCO. 

Many of the buildings were wood, with oriental fixings, which made 
them burn like tinder. In fact the inhabitants barely escaped with 
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CHAPTER VIII 

DEEDS OF HEROISM AND VALOR 

Personal Experiences by Survivors — How It Feels to 
Be Awakened by an Earthquake — A Woman 
Writer Makes Her Way Through the Still Rocking 
City — Millionaires Breakfast on the Grass Before 
the Ruins of Their Palaces — Automobiles Shriek 
and Toot Among the Falling Buildings. 

To stand clear-headed and observant while the world 
seems on the verge of utter ruin, one must be either 
a very great or a very depraved soul. Nero fiddled 
while Rome was burning. It was the crowning act 
of the world's supreme pessimist. 

But the San Francisco earthquake discovered men 
and women actuated by the most sublime motives, 
who not only looked with cool judgment upon " the 
wreck of matter and the crash of worlds," but went 
down into the seething furnace and remained on duty 
there in order that the world might know something 
of what was taking place in that ruined and burning 
city. 

It was because the Postal Telegraph kept a wire 
into the city and because there were heroes among its 
staff of telegraphers that the extent of the catastrophe 
was known so early, making it possible for the cities 
of the world to begin the work of relief before the 
horrible rocking of the tortured city had ceased. The 



115 



116 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

lines were continually being broken and the portable 
office of the operators had frequently to be moved to 
escape the falling walls and the roaring flames. But 
the men had always their nimble fingers on the keys 
of their instruments and over the world they flashed 
the story of that ever-increasing tragedy. 

As soon as possible the Western Union Telegraph 
Company also re-established a precarious communica- 
tion with outside cities. 

Over these few slender wires devoted special corre- 
spondents and' agents of The Associated Press sent 
many thousands of words to a horror-stricken world. 

The most graphic recital of an eye-witness to the 
destruction of San Francisco is that of Helen Dare, 
sent on the day of the earthquake to the Chicago 
American. She said: 

" No one who has not seen such a disaster as this 
that has befallen San Francisco can have any realiza- 
tion of the horror of it, of the pitiful helplessness and 
inadequacy of human beings thus suddenly cast before 
the destroying forces of nature. 

" Perhaps my own merely personal experience will 
tell the story as well as anything, for my personal ex- 
perience is only that of the thousands of peaceful 
residents of the doomed city who were aroused from 
sleep into a paralysis of fear by the violent and con- 
tinuous rocking of bed, of floor, of walls, of furniture, 
by the sounds of crashing chimneys, falling ornaments 
and pictures, breaking glass and the startled screams 
of women and children. 

" As if with sudden impact, I felt my bed struck 
from the north and then heave violently. I jumped 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 117 

out, putting my hands out to steady myself, but the 
opposite walls seemed to move away from me. The 
floor rocked like a boat on a choppy sea, the violence 
of the motion increasing and seeming ever and again 
to take a fresh start. It seemed as if it would never 
end, and yet it lasted but two minutes. My young 
son came running from his room and clasped in each 
other's arms we stood in the doorway of my room 
waiting, waiting. With a relaxing quiver — like the 
passing of a sigh, the heaving earth and billowing floor 
sank into repose. 

" We dressed and through the disarranged furni- 
ture, over the broken glass and fragments of orna- 
ments, we made our way out. The streets were full 
of people in* every stage of undress and excitement, 
one young mother in her night dress clasping her eight- 
month-old baby in her arms and trying to warm it by 
wrapping her thin lawn garment around it. A few 
blocks from Mayor Schmitz's home and a block from 
Mrs. Eleanor Martin's, my home is in the Western 
Addition, where, owing to the hills of rock formation, 
the damage was least. 

" The swarming people climbed the hills, their first 
fear being that a tidal wave would follow, and all eyes 
were on the bay, shining in the moonlight, but not 
even the sea wall of the land that the Fair estate is 
reclaiming from the ocean was hidden by water. The 
great gas tank near the water's edge was in flames 
and many believed the disturbance had come from the 
explosion of that. 

" By common instinct the people gathered in the 
streets. No one wanted to return to the threatening 



118 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

houses, I set out at once to see what damage had 
been done, finding it more appalling with every block 
I walked. 

" My way led along Pacific and Van Ness Avenues, 
through the district of splendid homes of wealth and 
fashion, and not one of the long lines of imposing 
houses but had suffered severely. The home of John 
D. Spreckels on Pacific Avenue and Laguna Street is 
one of the finest and proudest in the city, and on it 
the parapet had cracked and crumbled and fallen like 
so much spun sugar out of a wedding cake. Blocks 
of cement had fallen from the entrance ceiling, and at 
one of the upper windows a wan, white face peered 
from the rich lace curtains at Rudolph Spreckels' hand- 
some house at Gough and Pacific Avenues. 

" The lawn was riven from end to end in great 
gashes, the ornamental Italian rail leading to the im- 
posing entrance was a battered heap and Rudolph 
Spreckels, his wife, his little son, his mother-in-law 
and sisters-in-law and maid servants had set up their 
household on the sidewalk, the women wrapped in 
rugs and coverlets and huddled in easy chairs hastily 
rolled out. They were having their morning tea on 
the sidewalk and the silver service was spread on the 
stone coping. At house after house of the wealthy 
and fashionable this scene was repeated. 

" Turning into Van Ness Avenue, there on my left 
was St. Bridget's stone church at Broadway and Van 
Ness with bell towers fallen and the stone walls hang- 
ing loosely from the top. There on my right, a couple 
of blocks away, was St. Luke's Church, a total wreck, 
its tower of stone just a heap of waste. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 119 

" The churches have suffered greatly. Besides these, 
St. Patrick's and St. Dominick's are wrecked, and the 
old Mission Dolores of the Franciscan fathers has the 
ancient tiles of its roof crushed in, though the adobe 
walls still stand, but the steeple of the new church 
beside it in toppling over, crushed in its roof. 

" Claus Spreckels' home on Van Ness Avenue had 
its cornices and parapet crumbled like pie crust. 
Walter Hobart's house, that was built for Amy Crocker 
when she became Mrs. Porter Ashe, has all one side 
wrecked. 

"The St. Dunstan, at Sutter and Van Ness, one of 
the smartest apartment houses built of stone, has its 
top story tumbled off and its solid walls cracked. 

" At McNutt's Hospital, nearly opposite the St. Dun- 
stan on Sutter, the patients who could be moved had 
been brought to the door and sidewalk, and anxious 
inquirers were rushing up to get news of dear ones 
within who were bedridden or recently operated upon. 

" The new National Bank on Polk Street near Sut- 
ter Street is a wreck, with its plate-glass windows in 
splinters on the pavements. 

" All Sutter Street, as I look ahead, seems an avenue 
of ruin. The Granada, a big, fashionable hotel, has 
top and front shattered walls. 

" Signs, chimneys, whole houses as far as I can see 
are tumbled down and I must pick my way along the 
middle of the streets between the heaps of ruins. 

" Here from Polk Street down I found the streets 
swarming with people, white, wide-eyed, still awed, 
and others again exceedingly voluble in their terror, 



120 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

telling to every one their story of what has happened 
to himself. 

" Van Ness Avenue, too, was swarming. There 
were no cars, of course. Every one must walk who 
has no automobile or carriage or wagon. 

" Automobiles w^ere tearing and honking madly in 
every direction, rilled with frightened men and women 
and children, some dressed as though for a promenade, 
others partly dressed or wrapped in bed clothes. 

" Never were stranger automobile parties than these. 
I saw one little woman carrying her baby, her tear- 
wet face clinging to its baby cheeks, and she wore only 
her night dress and a kimono as her tender bare feet 
pattered across the sidewalk from a mansion door to 
an automobile. 

" Here again is an old, old woman with wrinkled 
face, paper-white — somebody's grandmother she is — 
and she is being trundled along in an invalid chair, 
her family, with hastily made bundles of clothes and 
valuables, all about her. 

" It is only when I get as far as the top of Leav- 
enworth Street hill and look down into the city's heart 
that I can get even a glimmering of what an awful 
thing an earthquake is to a city. Great clouds of 
smoke rise dull and dark on every side and deep red 
angry flames shoot long tongues through them. 

" Kearney Street and Montgomery are highways of 
confusion. The poor south of Market, thus suddenly 
thrown out, are in exodus toward Telegraph Hill, car- 
rying, dragging, trundling such household goods as 
they have managed to save. Here are two boys and 
a thin, flat chested woman trundling a sewing machine 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 121 

along. A drawer of it falls out and they halt to gather 
up the precious scattered spools. Poor little seam- 
stress, this is her all now. 

" Here is a wagon filled with bedding and cooking 
utensils, a crying woman and a baby on the seat, a 
bird cage dangling at the tail and two men taking 
the part of horses. Then a crazy nighthawk hack, 
a white faced woman dragged from her sick bed in it, 
fainting in the arms of another woman. 

" Then a big road machine screeching along, a red- 
faced fat man standing up in it mopping his brow, his 
eyes searching for the building that holds his busi- 
ness, and little street boys darting in and out snatch- 
ing what they can get, throwing that away and snatch- 
ing more, like children wantonly picking wild flowers. 

" I see one little creature capering with three hats 
on his head that he had taken from a show window. 
The banks and safe deposit vaults, the men and boys 
employed there, are busy pulling out drawers full of 
ledgers and valuable papers, carrying them away in 
their hands, loading them into wagons and even into 
wash buckets. On the steps of one bank, with the 
fire only a block away, I see a man wringing his hands 
and crying aloud, 'Will he never come; will he never 
come with the combination? My God, why doesn't 
he come?' 

" A theatrical man comes running along telling how 
the Grand Opera House has fallen in and is on fire 
with all Conreid's grand opera settings and the sing- 
ers' beautiful costumes going up in smoke. He laughs 
idiotically, poor chap, and says: ' Sudden close of the 
opera season, isn't it?' 



122 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

'The Majestic Theater is a ruin, too, with its roof 
fallen in. 

" I try to make my way to the ferry, first down one 
street and down another leading to the water front. 
Each one as I try, from Post to Washington, is closed 
by fire or wreckage, and there is no way through. On 
Washington Street, opposite the old postoffice, a build- 
ing has completely collapsed and under its edges are 
horses struggling and dying. 

" At last we find an open way on the next street 
and with the warmth of the blaze of water front sa- 
loons on my back I hurry across the upheaved street 
and twisted car tracks. This is made ground, and the 
earthquake played with it as a child plays with a card- 
board, cracking, creasing, bending it. 

" On the bay side of the water front the old docks 
have tumbled in and are like so much kindling wood. 
The tower of the ferry building is destroyed and 
broken, the ball at its top hanging over drunkenly on 
its slender pole and the clock, like all the city's clocks, 
stopped to mark the time of the earthquake. 

" From this point there is something colossal in the 
disaster that has befallen the city. A great cloud of 
smoke is rising*, magnificent and overwhelming in its 
proportions, growing ever black and blacker toward 
the ground, spreading wider and wider. 

" The journey from San Francisco to Stockton was 
a succession of perils. Fear was felt for the stability 
of the ferry building when the crowds rushed upon 
the boat and again for the Mole when they rushed off. 
The security of the rails to Oakland was suspected 
and the train traveled cautiously. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 123 

" From East Oakland nothing was known of incom- 
ing trains or the condition of the road. Collisions 
were imminent and every curve was breathlessly 
rounded. Each bridge and trestle offered a new dan- 
ger, and when the train crept into the Altamont tun- 
nel it seemed as if no one breathed in any dark car 
and a sigh swept through when the daylight gleamed 
at the other end. 

" One passenger from San Jose told me that Agnew's 
Asylum was thoroughly wrecked, the patients in the 
incurable ward nearlv all killed, and the rest are at 
large." 

Mrs. Spicer Dickenson, an aged woman of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., and two young companions were members of 
an excursion party that arrived at the Palace Hotel 
two days before the calamity befell San Francisco. 
When the first great tremble caused the big caravan- 
sary to rock and sway the three women dressed hur- 
riedly while plaster fell about them, and leaving their 
trunks, sought the street. 

A laundry wagon driver gave Mrs. Dickenson a seat 
with him and drove west out of the business district 
away from the danger of tall buildings. The younger 
women walked. At Market and Valencia Streets the 
wagon driver turned back to carry others to safety. 

After they had waited more than an hour, only to 
be refused a hundred times or more, a young man with 
an automobile agreed to make the attempt to reach 
San Jose for $150. The price to the terror stricken 
women was a trifle. At San Jose they paid $100 for 
another automobile to take them to Salinas. 

Dr. Woods Hutchinson, consulting physician at Ar- 



124 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

rowhead, Hot Springs, was occupying a room on the 
fourth floor of the St. Francis Hotel when the great 
earthquake came. 

" The shock awoke me," said Dr. Hutchinson, " and 
the hotel was surging and shrieking like a ship at sea. 
The sensation was similar to that experienced by my- 
self in a Kansas cyclone some years ago. It was as if 
the universe was crashing about my ears. 

" There were four or five plunging shocks, one after 
another. The hotel was badly cracked and warped 
but it withstood the shock nobly. It came out of the 
quake about the best of any of the buildings I saw." 

Dr. Hutchinson, after dressing, went out on the 
streets, and learning that the injured were being taken 
to the Mechanics' pavilion he made his way there and 
volunteered his services. 

" Between 300 and 400 wounded were cared for while 
that building stood," said he. " I saw eleven dead who 
succumbed to wounds after being brought in. None of 
the wounded was burned in that building as reported. 
When the firemen warned the physicians and nurses 
that the building was doomed wagons were brought 
and the wounded were loaded in. When I left there 
were not to exceed a dozen remaining and the fire had 
not yet reached the building. 

" I, with most of the other guests of the St. Francis, 
staid at that hotel until midnight, when we were forced 
out by the fire. I took a blanket and my personal ef- 
fects and made my way to one of the parks and passed 
the remainder of the night there. There were no 
vehicles to be had, and these would have been useless 
had there been, on account of the mountains of debris 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 125 

in the streets. I saw hundreds with their most valu- 
able belongings packed in trunks dragging them about 
the streets by ropes attached to the trunks or by huge 
bundles being dragged behind. " 

When Richard H. Cole, who was in the Palace Hotel, 
reached the street he found a scene of pandemonium. 
" Men and women were rushing about in night clothes, 
screaming and panic stricken/' said he. " At the Mar- 
ket Street entrance of the hotel a woman and man 
were standing. The woman glanced at her husband, 
saying, ' John, you go right back and get some clothes.' 
' What's the matter with your putting some on your- 
self?' said the husband, and the woman realized she 
was clad only in a night robe. 

" In going to the ferry I noticed that the south side 
of Market Street had risen eighteen inches higher than 
the north side. 

" On the ferry boat there was chaos and at the Mole 
in Oakland there was worse. People seemed to have 
gone daffy. 

" I saw one woman who had carried her sewing ma- 
chine all the way from San Francisco and packed it to 
the waiting room. Another woman was walking about 
talking to herself, holding a bonnet in one hand and 
waving a baby rattle in the other. One lady had a 
scarf and nightgown as her attire and clung to a par- 
rot's cage. 

" From Oakland the scene across the bay was ter- 
rible. The city was all in flames. At intervals of a 
few moments there would be tremendous explosions 
as dynamite or gun cotton was exploded in the build- 



126 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ings that stood in the way of the fire. Tongues of 
flame hundreds of feet long swept the skies." 

George F. Williams, a Pullman conductor, reached 
the city shortly after the morning earthquake shocks. 

" During the time I was there," said Mr. Williams, 
" the work of rescue and fighting the flames was going 
on without intermission. The bodies of the dead were 
being carried through the streets in every manner of 
conveyance. In many places the streets were im- 
passable. 

" On lower Market Street I saw a man with a team 
of horses and a truck, on which four bodies were piled 
haphazard. As I stood there a building tumbled into 
the street, which was already blocked in front. The 
flames came on apace, and the man, unable to save his 
horses or his freight of human bodies, sought safety 
in flight. As I watched, the fire licked up the dead 
and the living and swept onward. 

" The detonations of exploding dynamite were ter- 
rible. At i o'clock the destruction of the Palace Hotel 
began. A regiment of soldiers formed a square around 
the tottering building, charges of dynamite were placed 
in the corridors, and then a moment before the time for 
firing they drove the people headlong before them for 
some distance in order to protect them from accident." 

Dr. Ernest W. Fleming of Los Angeles told thus of 
his sensations and experiences: 

" I awoke to the groaning of timbers, the grinding, 
creaking sound, then came the roaring street. Plas- 
tering and wall decorations fell. The sensation was as 
if the buildings were stretching and writhing like a 
snake. The darkness was intense. Shrieks of women, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 127 

higher, shriller than that of the creaking timbers cut 
the air. I tumbled from the bed and crawled, scram- 
bling toward the door. The twisting and writhing ap- 
peared to increase. The air was oppressive. I seemed 
to be saying to myself, will it never, never stop? I 
wrenched the lock, the door of the room swung back 
against my shoulder. Just then the building seemed 
to breathe, stagger, and right itself. 

" The next I remember I was standing in the street 
laughing at the unholy appearance of half a hundred 
men clad in pajamas — and less. The women were in 
their night robes; they made a better appearance than 
the men. The street was a rainbow of colors in the 
early morning light. There was every stripe and hue 
of raiment never intended to be seen outside the bou- 
doir. 

" I looked at a man at my side; he was laughing at 
me. Then for the first time I became aware that I 
was in pajamas myself. I turned and fled back to my 
room. 

" There I dressed, packed my grip, and hastened back 
to the street. All the big buildings on Market Street 
toward the ferry were standing, but I marked four sep- 
arate fires. The fronts of the small buildings had 
fallen out into the streets and at some places the debris 
had broken through the sidewalk into cellars. 

" I noticed two women near me. They were appar- 
ently without escort. One said to the other, ' What 
wouldn't I give to be back in Los Angeles again.' 

" That awakened a kindred feeling and I proffered 
my assistance. I put my overcoat on the stone steps 
of a building and told them to sit there. 



128 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

u In less than two minutes those steps appeared to 
pitch everything forward, to be flying at me. The 
groaning and writhing started afresh. 

" But I was just stunned. I stood there in the street 
with debris falling about me. It seemed the natural 
thing for the tops of buildings to careen over and for 
fronts to fall out. I do not even recall that the women 
screamed. 

" The street gave a convulsive shudder and the build- 
ings somehow righted themselves again. I thought 
they had crashed together above my head. 

" The air was filled with the roar of explosions. They 
were dynamiting great blocks. Sailors were training 
guns to rake rows of residences. 

" All the while we were moving onward with the 
crowd. Cinders were falling about us. At times our 
clothing caught fire, just little embers that smoked 
once and went out. The sting burned our faces and 
we used our handkerchiefs for veils. 

" Everybody around us was using some kind of cloth 
to shield their eyes. It looked curious to see express- 
men and teamsters wearing those veils. 

" Quite naturally we seemed to come to Golden Gate 
Park. It seemed as if we had started for there. By 
this time the darkness was settling. But it was a weird 
twilight. The glare from the burning city threw a 
kind of red flame and shadow about us. It seemed 
uncanny; the figures about us moved like ghosts. 

" The wind and fog blew chill from the ocean, and 
we walked about to keep warm. Thousands were 
walking about, too, but there was no disturbance. 

" Families trudged along there. There was no 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 129 

hurry. All appeared to have time to spare. The 
streets, walks, and lawns were wiggling with little 
parties, one or two families in each. The men had 
brought bedding and blankets and they made im- 
promptu shelters to keep off the fog. 

"The cinders still kept falling. They seemed at 
times to come down right against the wind. They 
stung my face and made me restless. 

"All night we moved about the hills. Thousands 
were moving with us. As the night wore on the crowd 
grew. 

" Near daylight the soldiers came to the park. They 
were still moving in front of the fire. 

" I had brought a little store of provisions before 
nightfall and somehow we had kept them. It seemed 
easy to keep things there. I walked over to the fire 
made by one squad of soldiers and picked up a tin 
bucket. They looked at me but made no move. I 
went to a faucet and turned it on. Water was there. 
Not much, but a trickling little stream. There was 
water in the park all night. I boiled some eggs and 
we ate our breakfast. Then we concluded to try to 
make our way back to the water front. We did this 
because the soldiers were driving us from that part 
of the hills. The flames were still after us. 

" The dumb horror of it seemed to reach right into 
one's heart. Walking and resting, we reached the 
ferry near sunset. We had come back through a 
burned district, some four miles. I do not understand 
how the women stood it. 

" Other parties staggered past us. They were reel- 
ing, but not from wine. It was here that the pangs 



130 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of thirst caught us. But the end came at last. We 
reached the ferry and the boats were running. The 
soldiers were there, too. They seemed to be every- 
where. They were offering milk to the women and 
children." 

Many of the hotel guests remained in the city, doing 
what they could to assist the wretched residents. 
Others made their way as best they might to nearby 
towns and there caught trains and hurried home to 
their anxious relatives. Several English tourists who 
were on their way around the world turned back in 
disgust, saying they preferred their little island where 
they knew the buildings would not fall about their 
heads. 



CHAPTER IX 

TALES TOLD BY SURVIVORS 

Guests Who Escaped Safely from the Hotels Relate 
Thrilling Experiences — Saw Buildings Sway, Col- 
lapse and Burst Into Flames — Mad Rush to the 
Ferry Docks — Grand Opera Stars in Deadly Peril — 
Spend Night in Open Air Camps with Other Refu- 
gees — Olive Fremstad, Refusing to Flee, Aids In- 
jured and Destitute — Soldier Shoots Man to Save 
Him from Death in Flames. 

In the great hotels of San Francisco, which were 
destroyed, were hundreds of guests who barely es- 
caped with their lives. Many of them had thrilling 
stones to tell of the perils they passed through and 
the awful sights they saw. 

Egbert H. Gold, president of the Chicago Car Heat- 
ing Company, was at the Palace Hotel. " I was asleep 
on the seventh floor/' he said, " at the time of the first 
quake. I was thrown out of my bed and halfway 
across the room. Immediately realizing the import 
of the occurrence and fearing that the building was 
about to collapse, I made my way down the six flights 
of stairs and into the main corridor. I was the first 
guest to appear. The clerk and hotel employes were 
running about as if they were mad. Within two min- 
utes after I had appeared other guests began to flock 
into the corridor. Few, if any of them, wore other 
than their night clothing. 

133 



134 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

"I returned to my room and got my clothing, then 
walked to the offices of the Western Union in my pa- 
jamas and bare feet to telegraph to my wife in Los 
Angeles. I found the telegrapher there, but all the 
wires were down. I sat down on the sidewalk, picked 
the broken glass out of the soles of my feet and put 
my clothes on. 

" All this, I suppose, took little more than twenty 
minutes. Within that time, below the Palace, the 
buildings for more than three blocks were a mass of 
flames, which quickly communicated to other buildings. 
The scene was a terrible one. Billows of fire seemed 
to roll from the business blocks, soon half consumed, 
to other blocks in the vicinity, only to climb and loom 
again. 

" The Call Building, at the corner of Third and Mar- 
ket Streets, as I passed I saw to be more than a foot 
out of plumb and hanging over the street like the lean- 
ing tower of Pisa. I remained in San Francisco until 
8 o'clock and then took a ferry for Oakland, but re- 
turned to the burning city an hour and a half later. 
At that time the city seemed doomed. I remained but 
a few minutes, then made my way back to the ferry 
station. I hope I may never be called upon to pass 
through such an experience again. 

" People by the thousands and seemingly devoid of 
reason were crowded around the ferry station. At 
the iron gates they clawed with their hands as so many 
maniacs. They sought to break the bars, and, failing 
in that, turned upon each other. 

" Fighting my way to the gate like the others, the 
thought came into my mind of what rats, in a trap 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 135 

were. Had I not been a strong man I should certainly 
have been killed. 

" When the ferry drew up to the slip, and the gates 
were thrown open, the rush to safety was tremendous. 
The people flowed through the passageway like a 
mountain torrent, that, meeting rocks in its path, 
dashes over them. Those who fell saved themselves 
as best they could. 

" I left Oakland at about 5 o'clock. At that time 
San Francisco was hidden in a pall of smoke. The 
sun shone brightly upon it without any seeming pene- 
tration. Flames at times cleft the darkness. This 
cloud was five miles in height, and at its top changed 
into a milk white." 

Adolphus Busch, the St. Louis brewer, was at the 
St. Francis Flotel with his family. Telling of his ex- 
periences, he said: " The hotel, when the shock came, 
swayed from south to north like a tall poplar in a 
storm; furniture, even pianos, was overturned, and 
people thrown from their beds. 

" I summoned my family and friends and urged them 
to escape to Jefferson Square, which we did. 

" An awful sight met our eyes. Every building was 
either partly or wholly wrecked, roofs and cornices 
falling from skyscrapers on lower houses, crushing and 
burying the inmates. 

" Fires started in all parts of the city, the main 
water pipes burst and flooded streets, one earthquake 
followed another, the people became terrified. Regu- 
lar soldiers and the militia maintained order and dis- 
cipline, otherwise more horrors would have occurred 
and riots might have prevailed. Then the worst hap- 



136 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

pened. The fire spread over three-fourths of the city 
and could not be controlled, no water to fight it, no 
light, and the earth still trembling. 

" Building after building was dismantled to check 
the progress of the flames, but all of no avail. We 
were fortunate to secure conveyances and fled to Nob 
Hill, from which we witnessed the indescribable drama. 
Block after block was devastated. The fires blazed 
like volcanoes, and all business houses, hotels, thea- 
ters — in fact, the entire business portion — lay in ruins, 
and two-thirds of the residences. 

" After a night of horrors we boarded the ferry for 
Oakland, where my private car had been since Tues- 
day." 

Henry Bolton, secretary of the Harsha Manufactur- 
ing Company of Chicago, who was a guest of the Pa- 
cific Hotel, gave the following vivid description of the 
scenes in the business district: 

" I was awakened by the first shock and in a second 
knew it was an earthquake. The motion was a spin- 
ning one, from right to left and back again. Dress- 
ing hurriedly, I rushed, with a friend, out into the 
streets, only to find wreckage everywhere. On Mar- 
ket Street fronts of buildings had fallen. Little blazes 
of fire broke out in all directions. Soon small build- 
ings were in ruins. Bodies were buried beneath them. 
Near the Grand on the street east a drove of steers 
were being driven to slaughter. 

" The buildings on either side were down; the street 
was a narrow one; the steers were piled up in a heap, 
buried beneath the rocks — about twenty-five of them 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 137 

— five or six had escaped unhurt, as had the driver. 
Such a sight! People coming from everywhere. 

" Smoke was pouring out of the mass of debris. As 
far as our eyes could see there was evidence of fire. 
We wended our way zig-zag about and went down in 
the Mission District — the poor people of the lower 
classes- — the women carrying their children to a place 
of more danger than of less. By this time we began 
to see that there was danger of being cut off by the 
fires and we retreated as fast as we could — none too 
soon. 

" The next twenty-four hours were spent by the 
people in moving and in abandoning their belongings. 
Not one per cent of the goods that people attempted 
to save was saved. Such a day! 

" It was something remarkable to note the prompt- 
ness with which the government took charge of mat- 
ters through the military channels. By 9 o'clock in 
the morning of the 18th the city was under martial 
law — troops everywhere. 

" Fire now raged about us. Dynamite was used by 
tons, blowing up buildings. The wind blew first from 
the south, then from the west, then from the east; I 
never experienced anything like it before. Thus the 
fire spread. We moved our grips a dozen times. 

" We registered at the Savoy Hotel, just opposite 
the park and across from the St. Francis Hotel — four 
of us in one room. There we had our supper. There 
was another slight shock which started the women to 
screaming and they fled. The dining room was on 
the fourth floor. We, however, sat still and ate our 



138 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

supper. As night came on we went up to Nob Hill 
and in every direction was a furnace of flame. 

" We then came down through the center of the city 
near the ruins of the Palace and Grand. It had been 
supposed that the fire was under control, but now all 
hope was gone. The Crocker Building had at last 
received its baptism of fire; this was the last hope of 
saving the section where the Lick House and the larg- 
est banks were located. Such a rain of fire! The 
sky was filled with sparks from Chinatown. A grand 
and awful sight! Then we made our way to Oak- 
land." 

Distributed among the various hotels were the mem- 
bers of the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York. 
All the splendid scenery, costumes and musical instru- 
ments of the organization were lost in the burning of 
the Grand Opera House, but no one of the company 
was injured, though nearly all of them lost their per- 
sonal effects. 

Caruso, Campanari, Dippel, Eames, Sembrich, Scotti, 
Plangon, Reiss, Miss Walker, Miss Abbott, and other 
stars passed through the earthquake and fire, mingled 
in the crowds of refugees, ate bread and sardines pur- 
chased at suburban grocery stores, and slept in the 
open air, just as did 300,000 other homeless ones. 

All of the opera stars had exciting experiences. The 
prima donnas escaped from the hotels in their night 
dresses, and the world famous tenors, bassos, and bari- 
tones in their pajamas, none pausing to dress when 
the first shock of earthquake was felt. 

Caruso, the tenor, was one of the first to escape from 
the Palace Hotel. A few minutes after the first shock 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 139 

he was found, barefooted and pajama clad, seated on 
his valise in the middle of the street. 

One charming contralto fled from the swaying, reel- 
ing hotel in her night clothes and without stopping to 
save any of her personal effects. Unable to procure 
other clothing, she finally was compelled to don some 
necessary articles of attire originally designed for a 
man. 

One singer was seen standing in the street, barefoot, 
and clad only in his underwear, but clutching a favor- 
ite violin, which he had carried with him in his flight. 

Rossi, a favorite basso, though almost in tears, was 
heard trying his voice at a corner near the Palace 
Hotel. 

M. Parvis, M. Dufriche, the baritone and stage man- 
ager, and Mme. Dufriche, the harpist, Miss Abbott, 
and Miss Jacoby, who were on the top floor of the 
Palace when the great shock came, took it for granted 
that death was inevitable. It seemed so utterly use- 
less to try to do anything to avert their fate that they 
remained where they were, every minute expecting 
death. When the earthquake shock was over they 
dressed and made their way to the street. 

Planqon and Dippel and Mme. Sembrich were at the 
St. Francis and the musicians and the chorus at The 
Oaks. Mme. Eames, Miss Fremstad, and several oth- 
ers were at private hotels or residences. All escaped, 
but had interesting experiences in trying to reach Oak- 
land. All spent the first night in the open air camps. 

Mr. Alfred Hertz, the Wagnerian conductor, was 
one of those quartered at the Chutes. He was given 
a place to sleep near the Zoo. He said: "To my 



140 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

dying day I will never forget my experience when I 
was awakened by the roaring of lions. I knew not 
that I was in a jungle or den of wild beasts." 

Speaking of the disaster, Sig. Caruso said: 

" It instantly recalled the horrors in my native Na- 
ples, of which I have been reading. I have no doubt 
the earthquake here has some relation to the eruption 
of Vesuvius." 

Miss Walker said: "We are too happy to have 
saved our lives to think of our dresses." Dippel spoke 
in the same strain, though he lost costumes valued at 
$15,000. 

Mme. Sembrich placed the loss by the destruction 
of her elegant costumes at $20,000. She was fortu- 
nate enough to save her valuable pearls. 

Olive Fremstad proved the heroine of the grand 
opera forces. She was stopping at the St. Dunstan 
Hotel, and was asleep when the earthquake came. 
The building was practically destroyed, and the young 
contralto narrowly escaped with her life. 

When she was taken from the building, however, the 
singer refused to leave the neighborhood, and remained 
the entire day, ministering to the injured and securing 
provisions for the destitute. She spent all her money 
buying food and wine for the sufferers, and when night 
came, walked to the ferry and crossed over to Oak- 
land. 

R. A. Cole, a horseman, well known over the coun- 
try, was at the Palace Hotel, in the midst of the scenes 
of horror. 

" My God. I never saw anything like it," said Mr. 
Cole. "And I have seen things, too; I was in the St. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 141 

Louis cyclone and the Baltimore fire. They were 
nothing. I saw all San Francisco staggering and 
rocking and then in flames. I wanted to rush down 
and jump in the bay and shut out all the awful sights." 

" It was terrible, too terrible to describe,' , said Mrs. 
Mary Longstreet. " I was on the eighth floor of the 
St. Francis Hotel and was awakened by a terrible 
shaking motion and jumped out of bed and tried to 
go to mother's room, but was unable to stand. The 
hotel building rocked like a ship in a storm, and it 
seemed to me that it tipped over so far at times that 
it could never straighten again. 

" After the shock I went to mother's room. We 
went to the window and looked out across the square. 
The scene was horrible. Big buildings were in ruins, 
some completely demolished and others standing with 
great cracks in the walls, tottering and ready to fall. 

" Suddenly, as we were standing there, the entire city 
seemed to catch fire. In all directions and as far as we 
could see the great tongues of flames leaped into the 
sky. In less time than it takes to tell it the entire 
part of the city between us and the ferry was ablaze. 
It was a beautiful, yet terrible sight. 

" We remained in the hotel until 10 o'clock and at 
that time succeeded in getting a carriage and an auto- 
mobile. We then left the hotel and drove to the home 
of friends a mile away. When we got there we found 
the house in ruins. We then went to the home of 
the Tevises and remained there until we were driven 
out by fire. Finally we found refuge at the residence 
of J. M. Winslow on Nob Hill. 

" We slept on the floor that night, but they had no 



142 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

food, and after scouring the city my brother managed 
to purchase ten hardtack biscuits and four boxes of 
sardines, and after eating these we made beds on the 
floor and tried to sleep. 

" That night was awful. We could hear the cries 
of the suffering people and the crash of falling build- 
ings all night long. Van Ness Avenue was crowded 
with people, mothers carrying babies, men and women 
packing on their backs what few things they had man- 
aged to save. Where all those people found food and 
shelter I cannot imagine. We had no water and al- 
most died from thirst. " 

" Soldiers shot living beings to save them from the 
torture of death in the flames," said Miss Margaret 
Underhill of Chicago. " The horror of it all was so 
overwhelming that the sight of the dead became com- 
monplace. The misery of the living received scarcely 
passing notice at first. 

" I was in a three-story frame building. The house 
seemed to swing like the pendulum of a clock. Plas- 
ter was falling about me and pictures fell from the 
wall as I sprang from my bed. 

" At that moment the brick chimney of the Sacred 
Heart College adjoining crashed through the ceiling, 
burying my bed beneath the debris. A second chim- 
ney fell a few feet behind me as I rushed down the 
hall. After the shock subsided I returned, dressed, 
and with the help of a friend moved my trunk to the 
street, where I left it to be devoured by the flames. 

" Three times my friends and I stopped to make a 
camping place in the street where we thought the 
flames that were moving west would not reach us. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 143 

" We stopped to watch the soldiers, firemen and 
policemen, who, with timbers from the wreckage, were 
at work on the front of a burning frame building. The 
front of the three-story structure had fallen outward. 

" Pinned beneath the structure was a man who 
pleaded piteously with the men who worked to release 
him. His head and shoulders projected from the 
wreckage. With his free arm he tried to help the work- 
ers by pulling at the timbers. His eyes bulged from 
their sockets. One by one the men were driven back 
by the approaching flames until at last only one, a 
soldier, remained. His face w r as blistered by the heat. 

" * Good-by/ the soldier shouted, as a sheet of flame 
swept around the corner of the building. 

" The place was a roaring hell. The soldier picked 
up his rifle, which was standing against a broken tim- 
ber, and turned to go. From where we stood we could 
see the very timber that held the man down smoke. 
His hair and mustache were singed. 

" ' For God's sake, shoot me/ he begged. His voice 
rose clear above the roar of the flames. 

" The soldier turned and went back to within twen- 
ty-five feet of the man and said something. I could 
not hear what he said. Then he started to walk away. 

" ' Shoot me before you go/ the man yelled. The 
soldier turned quickly. His rifle was at his shoulder. 
The rifle cracked and the blood spurted from the head 
of the man. I covered my eyes and walked on. 

" I saw mothers seated on the curbstones trying to 
still the hunger of their babies with beer. As we 
walked along the water front I saw them digging 



144 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

trenches and burying piles of dead. Garbage wagons 
served as hearses. 

" Wearied with the day, I slept soundly through the 
night. My bed was the rocks on North Beach." 

" There was a lot of pathos and some humor in the 
crowded streets after the shock," said A. Dalrymple 
of New York, who was at the Grand Hotel. " I ran 
from the hotel, with the plaster showering down on 
my head, and the first thing I saw was a man, with 
blood streaming from cuts on his head and body, carry- 
ing a dead woman in his arms. He was the janitor of 
a three-story building and had found himself in the 
basement with his dead wife beside him. The building 
had split in two. 

" I saw one big, fat man calmly walking up Mar- 
ket street carrying a huge bird cage in his arm, and 
the cage was empty. 

" In Fell Street an old lady scantily dressed was 
pushing a sewing machine up the hill. That sewing 
machine was her world just then. 

" At the park a man came in carrying a large, carved, 
wooden Japanese statue. He laid it on the grass as 
carefully as if it had been his wife or child. 

" It seemed as if every other person was carrying 
a phonograph, with the big trumpet tucked under his 
arm. I never before realized there were so many. 

" At the Panhandle in the evening was an eighty- 
year-old woman who had owned two buildings that 
were destroyed. She was the most cheerful one in 
the park." 



CHAPTER X. 

GREAT UNIVERSITY WRECKED 

Earthquake Shocks Lay Low Beautiful Buildings of 
Stanford University at Palo Alto — Pride of Golden 
State in Ruins — Students Are Killed and Injured — 
Story of the Founding of the Institution of Learn- 
ing — University of California at Berkeley not Dam- 
aged. 

One of the most grievous losses resulting from the 
great earthquake was the almost entire destruction of 
the Leland Stanford, Jr., University. Only two of the 
fifteen completed buildings which had been erected by 
the greatest endowment a school ever received were 
left standing. One student, Junius Robert Hanna of 
Bradford, Pa., was killed in the fall of the buildings, 
as was Hans Stroh, a fireman. Several students were 
severely injured. The monetary loss was about $4,- 
000,000. 

Stanford University was one of the boasts of Cali- 
fornia and was admittedly the most beautiful educa- 
tional institution, from the point of view of architect- 
ure, in the United States. It is situated near the 
town of Palo Alto, thirty miles south of San Fran- 
cisco, on the coast line of the Southern Pacific Rail- 
road. Its endowment is $30,000,000, and its enroll- 
ment of students 2,000. In nineteen years it had 
grown to be one of the largest universities of the 

145 



146 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

country, with twenty-six distinct buildings, a magnifi- 
cent museum and a splendid memorial chapel which 
cost $1,000,000. 

The buildings were constructed according to a uni- 
form architectural design, and reproduced upon an 
elaborate scale the long lines, open arches, colonnades 
and red tile roofing of the old Spanish missions of 
California. The first corner stone was laid in May, 
1887. Dr. David Starr Jordan, an eminent educator, 
is president, and the faculty numbers about 200 
teachers. 

Leland Stanford, creator of this great school, where 
instruction is given in almost every branch known to 
the system of pedagogy, without charges for tuition, 
was a war governor, railroad magnate and senator of 
California. From early manhood until his death in 
1893 ms career was closely associated with the up- 
building of the Golden State, and almost his entire 
estate has been devoted to the university which bears 
the name of his son. Mrs. Leland Stanford, whose 
tragic death at Honolulu is of comparatively recent 
date, was his co-worker in this magnificent philan- 
thropy. After her husband's demise she nobly car- 
ried out the plan which they had formed together, 
making personal sacrifices for the good of the insti- 
tution, and rushing a lengthy litigation, which for a 
time threatened the existence of the university, to a 
successful termination. 

Leland Stanford, Jr., a boy of 14, died of typhoid 
fever during a sojourn in Italy in 1883. After the 
body had been taken back to Palo Alto, the country 
home of the grieving and childless parents, the father 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 147 

dreamed a strange dream, which gave birth to the 
memorial university. It seemed that his young son 
stood before him and said: "Father, don't spend 
your money in a vast sorrow. Do something for hu- 
manity. Build a university for the education of poor 
young men." 

That vision changed the course of Senator and Mrs. 
Stanford's life. They immediately set about the task 
of erecting a university as a memorial to their son 
upon the broad green acres of Palo Alto Farm, which 
he had loved. The father renounced business ven- 
tures and made arrangements by which his wealth 
could be made a blessing to the world. The design 
of the institution was made the subject of a competi- 
tion in which famous architects all over the world 
took part and the prize was awarded to a Boston firm. 
Professor Jordan was called to the presidency, and the 
senator lived to see his dream realized, although the 
scheme of the institution, a double quadrangle of 
buildings with a chapel in the center, had only recently 
been completed. 

After her husband's death, the panic of 1893 placed 
many burdens upon Mrs. Stanford's shoulders. She 
discovered that there was almost no ready money with 
which to pay running expenses and was compelled to 
close her town house in San Francisco, sell her jewels, 
live as modestly as possible, and operate for profit the 
wineries on her farms at Vina and Palo Alto. Then 
the Federal Government made her task more difficult 
by filing suit to recover from the Stanford estate the 
dead senator's pro rata share of the Central Pacific 
debt. This involved stock valued at $15,000,000. 



148 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

A decision of the United States Supreme Court of 
March 2, 1896, set all of this worry of failure aside 
by declaring against the collection of the money from 
the estate. It is recorded that the receipt of the tele- 
gram announcing the decision of the court was the 
most joyous and notable event ki the history of the 
institution. 

In all of the trouble President Jordan stood by the 
institution which he had set out to establish on a firm 
basis. With him stood the corps of assistants. Not- 
withstanding the many offers, and many of them flat- 
tering ones, at largely advanced salaries, it is claimed 
that not a desertion was recorded in the years of hard- 
ships. 

Faithfulness of this kind was followed by a period 
of prosperity which, within the next few years, placed 
the institution on the pedestal planned for it by its 
founder. The original plans could now be carried out, 
as the property to the credit of the institution in- 
creased in value and was freed from any clouded title, 
such as was cast upon it by the suit of the govern- 
ment. 

To lessen the embarrassment to which the univer- 
sity had b?en subjected through the threatened finan- 
cial straits Thomas Welton Stanford of Australia an- 
nounced that with his portion of the bequest of the 
Stanford estate he would erect a library building. A 
number of similar bequests came at this time from 
the Stanford family, increasing the amount of the en- 
dowment left it by the founder and given it by his 
widow. 

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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 151 

of Trustees were authorized to use the revenue from 
the 85,000 acres of land conveyed to the institution, 
but none of the land could be sold. All this was stip- 
ulated in the grant made by Mr. Stanford when he 
first conceived the general outline for the university. 

While the trustees had the management of the finan- 
cial part of the institution, the president was author- 
ized to carry on the management of the teaching force 
and to lay out the curriculum and the mode of teach- 
ing. It was stated that the object of the school was 
" to qualify students for personal success and direct 
usefulness in life." In its teachings, outlined in its 
relation to belief in government, it was settled that 
the university should be " based on the inalienable 
rights of man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap- 
piness." It was also set out that the school should 
teach " the right and advantages of association and 
co-operation," in addition to " the immortality of the 
soul, the existence of an all-wise and beneficent Crea- 
tor, and that obedience to His laws is the highest duty 
of man." But above all of this Senator Stanford in- 
sisted that while the school must have a religious life 
none of the teachings were to be sectarian. The 
school was likewise established as a coeducational in- 
stitution. 

Following the ideas of the founder, the university 
grants no honorary degree, and there are no compara- 
tive ranking scholarships. In fact, it has only been 
within the past few years that the cap and gown idea 
at commencement was adopted. The school was es- 
tablished primarily for the poor of both sexes. 

It is said that the percentage of students depending 



152 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

on what they could make during the scholastic year 
to carry them through was not less than one-third of 
the matriculated students. 

The buildings of the university were located in an 
8,000 acre tract of land. Between the university 
grounds and Mayfield is situated the Stanford home 
of Palo Alto, from which the university derives its 
name. It was at this place that the famous horses 
bred by Leland Stanford were raised. The entire 
sweep of land is shaded with rare plants, selected from 
over the entire world, including specimens from China, 
Australia, England, and from practically every clime. 
Ten acres near this place are set aside for the mauso- 
leum of the Stanford family and a burying ground for 
members of the university, who shall be buried there 
only at the direction of the Board of Trustees. 

Just at the point where the plain rises up toward 
the foothills the university buildings loomed into 
shape. 

Constructed of a buff sandstone, the buildings were 
elaborate with arches and covered passageways. 
Probably the most beautiful part was the inner quad- 
rangle, with its longest side running in two 600 foot 
stretches of arcades. All this was capped at the side 
entrances with fairy towers in the mission style, with 
the roofs tiled in red. With the passage of the few 
years since this part of the university has been con- 
structed, the color of the stone had slightly turned to 
a yellow, giving an additional glow to the buildings. 

Inside of the quadrangle were two and one-half 
acres bedded in palms, bamboos, and other tropical 
plants, presenting a decorative and pleasing effect not 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 153 

soon to be forgotten. It was around this inner quad- 
rangle that the large imposing buildings composing 
the school were located. A year or two ago not less 
than fifteen of the buildings had been completed and 
several more were in the course of construction. In 
erecting the buildings the general scheme as originally 
planned was followed, and it is estimated that the ac- 
tual cost of the buildings alone, when completed, would 
not have been under $3,000,000. 

The memorial arch, standing just inside the main 
gate, was one of the most conspicuous features of the 
university. It was 100 feet in height, 90 feet wide and 
34 feet in depth. Under the arch stood a group of 
the Stanford family — father, mother and son. One 
of the most notable buildings was the museum, con- 
taining 200,000 feet of space. Two rooms were de- 
voted to the objects collected by Leland Stanford, Jr., 
who was deeply interested in curios, and many of the 
labels were in his handwriting. In another room 
many of his toys were displayed. 

Mrs. Stanford's death in Honolulu in the summer 
of 1905 was followed by a rumor of murder. She was 
stricken suddenly, and asserted upon her deathbed that 
she had been poisoned. The investigation which fol- 
lowed did not reveal any crime, but failed to explain 
many of the mysterious circumstances of the affair. 

The University of California, situated at Berkeley, 
not many miles from Leland Stanford, escaped mirac- 
ulously from the effects of the earthquake, but the 
town of Berkeley was seriously damaged. Between 
the two universities a peculiar rivalry has existed. 
The University of California has been backed by the 



154 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

wealth of Senator and Mrs. Hearst, and each family 
has striven to outdo the other in generosity. The 
University of California has an enrollment of 4,500 
students. 

That Leland Stanford University will be rebuilt is 
beyond question. Its endowment and its reputation 
both are too big to allow of its perishing. Its faculty 
and students will stand by it in adversity and insure 
its rehabilitation and future prosperity. Though its 
buildings were wrecked, the great institution was by 
no means destroyed. 



CHAPTER XI 

CHINATOWN IS DEVASTATED 

District Familiar to the World's Travelers Falls Prey 
to Quake and Flame — Hundreds of Orientals Per- 
ish and Throw Themselves to Death — Famous Joss 
Houses, Theaters and Crowded Rookeries Collapse 
— Panic Stricken Chinese Have No Time to Placate 
the Dragon of Evil in Earth's Center. 

Chinatown, famed among the travelers of the world 
as one of the greatest points of interest in San Fran- 
cisco, fell early before the withering breath of the con- 
flagration which followed the earthquake. Situated 
in what was once the residence section of the early 
settlers of the city, its location was commanding and 
picturesque. 

The Chinatown District extended from Kearney 
Street on the east to Powell Street on the west and 
from Clay Street on the south, to Pacific Street on the 
north, the whole comprising nine blocks of business 
houses* manufactories and dwellings. The Hall of 
Justice faced it on the east and directly in front of this 
building was Portsmouth Square, in which the Robert 
Louis Stevenson monument stood and in which the 
Chinese children found their playground the year 
round. The Chinese District rested on the slope of 
Nob Hill, the residence section of San Francisco's mil- 
lionaires and leading financiers and business men. 

155 



156 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

In the quarter were many buildings of historic in- 
terest, magnificent Joss Houses, theaters, restaurants 
and the Chinese Consulate, where oriental visitors 
were royally entertained by their countrymen. These 
buildings, shaken by the quake, cracked, then toppled 
over in ruins, burying in the huge piles of debris scores 
of Chinese. The ornate Joss Houses were the first to 
fall, because of their flimsy construction, and the ever- 
present fires burning therein to placate the gods soon 
reduced the ruins to ashes. 

The Celestials, awakened from their slumbers by the 
first shocks, deserted their dwellings in crowds and 
gathered in Portsmouth Square, fear stricken and 
voicing prayers to the gods of their houses. Count- 
less red papers, bearing sacred hieroglyphics, were 
burned and cast heavenward to appease the angry gods 
which seemed bent upon their destruction. Holes 
were dug in the ground and flaming papers buried in 
the hope of mollifying the dragon whose anger had 
been aroused and whose mission meant destruction 
and death. 

The Chinese, thousands of whom lived in the under- 
ground passageways that to many visitors and tour- 
ists were the replica of the catacombs of Paris and 
Rome, deserted their dens and bearing their valuables, 
fled to the water front. Many of these, maddened by 
fear, sprang into the water, despite the efforts of the 
troops to prevent them, and were drowned. <\mong 
these were numerous Japanese, who committed hari 
kari before taking the fatal plunge. With the sound- 
ing of gongs, the blare of brass, the squeaking of reed 
instruments, the shrieks of the panic-stricken, the 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 157 

shouts of the maddened populace, the roar of the con- 
suming flames, the groans of the wounded and the 
moans of the dying, pandemonium reigned, striking 
terror to every heart and blanching every face with 
emotions of horror and despair. 

The population of the Chinese quarter was fully 
45,000 Chinese. In addition to these there were 5,000 
Japanese, while to the north in the Latin Quarter, ex- 
tending from Pacific Street, across Telegraph Hill to 
Union Street, more than 30,000 French, Italians, Mex- 
icans and representatives of other nationalities resided 
in cheap dwellings or tenements. The purlieus of the 
Barbary Coast which extended to the eastward of 
Kearney Street and northwest of Pacific Street, soon 
were emptied of their cosmopolitan inhabitants, all of 
whom fled to Portsmouth Square with such valuables 
as they, in their fright, could gather together for their 
flight for safety. Quarrels followed between the races 
for vantage ground; only the presence of the troops 
and the police ordered thither by Mayor Schmitz, pre- 
vented an open outbreak and the shedding of blood. 

The scenes were reminiscent of those enacted during 
the earthquake of 1897, when thousands fled from their 
homes in the early morning hours for safety in the 
square. The Chinese have a belief that by digging 
holes in the ground and casting burning sacred papers 
therein, the dragon in the bowels of the earth may be 
appeased. Wagons loaded down with roasted pigs, 
fowl and other viands were brought to the scene and 
scattered broadcast to propitiate the angry gods who 
were destroying the town and whom it was necessary 



15$ THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

to mollify so that the lives of the populace might be 
spared. 

During the terror of the morning hours following 
the first shocks of the earthquake, Cum Cook Alley, in 
which the fish stands and gambling houses were lo- 
cated, was thronged by an excited horde madly fleeing 
from the wrath to come. Near by in Woo Tung 
Alley, in which the Joss Houses and offices of the va- 
rious tongs, or societies, were situated, the same spec- 
tacles of horror presented themselves. Along Dupont 
Street, in which the pretentious business places of the 
quarter once did a thriving business, streams of Celes- 
tials came and went with every manifestation of mad- 
ness born of dread. Stores were deserted by their 
owners, valuable goods hurled into the street, while 
from the roof tops were thrown household articles of 
insignificant value, imperiling the lives of those below. 
In every street and alley the situation was the same — 
all fled in terror before the flames which were sweep- 
ing up from the east and south and which, ere night- 
fall, held the quarter in their fiery grasp. 

It is impossible to state with precision how many 
lives were blotted out in the Chinese Quarter, but the 
number must have reached 1,000. Eye witnesses state 
that scores of bodies were found in the underground 
opium dens, the victims having been suffocated. Par- 
alyzed by the effect of opium and other drugs which 
intoxicated their senses, the Chinese devotees of the 
pipe, lost in the dreams which De Quincey so ably 
portrayed, lay back in their pallets and, unyielding, 
gave themselves up to death. 

The destruction of Chinatown removed many pict- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 159 

uresque spots which, for years, were the admiration 
of visitors from all parts of the globe. First in im- 
portance among these may be mentioned the Chinese 
Theater on Jackson Street, the most famous in the 
United States. Many of the best actors China has 
produced have strutted across its stage arrayed in 
costly, but fantastic garments, to the accompaniment 
of discordant sounds such as only the average Chinese 
orchestra is able to produce. The productions inva- 
riably were on a costly scale, but while no scenery was 
employed, as in the American theaters, the costuming, 
for richness of texture and design, excelled anything 
ever seen on an English stage. 

Below the Jackson Street Theater, on Kearney 
Street, was the old Bella-Union Theater in which, in 
the early fifties, the elder Booth, Murdock, Jenny Lind 
and other famous stars appeared. A portion of this 
was devoted to the Chinese drama, while the remain- 
ing portion was given up to lodging purposes. This 
noted theater, which long survived its usefulness and 
which, in its last years, sheltered the dregs of Oriental 
and Latin population, went down before the wither- 
ing flames, the shrieks and cries of terror of those gath- 
ered in Portsmouth Square, fifty feet away, being its 
only requiem. 

In Dupont Street, near Clay, was the famous Joss 
House of the Suey Sings, one of the most influential 
of the Chinese Six Companies. The fittings of this 
place were exceedingly rich and elaborate. The Joss, 
or god, hideous of face and form, but splendid in his 
finery, sat on his haunches beneath a canopy of gold 
cloth of rare design and bearing the device of the 



160 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

sacred dragon in burnished gold thread, while at either 
hand stood solid hammered silver urns, bowls, and 
vessels used in the mystic Celestial worship. Behind 
the figure were ranged stands of spears and weapons 
of every description brought from the temples of 
China, and all of exquisite workmanship and great 
antiquity. These stands were flanked by banners of 
almost solid gold, beautifully garnished and covered 
with hieroglyphics worked in silver and gold thread, 
the whole contributing to make the picture one of 
oriental splendor seldom seen outside the sacred tem- 
ples at Pekin. 

Before the Joss stood the " Table of the Offerings " 
upon which the worshipping celestials deposited their 
offerings to the Joss on festival days. On this table 
were earthen bowls, filled with sacred sand in which 
burning punks rested, sending a pungent odor upward. 
Near this was the figure of the little Joss, before which 
the slave girls of the quarter threw their sticks, shaped 
like boomerangs. These were covered with hiero- 
glyphics, and according as they fell the fortunes of the 
suppliants for favors varied. 

Life in Chinatown was of a kaleidescopic nature. 
The Mongols, as a class, are devoted to their idols and 
racial traditions, and in business they are scrupulous 
and honest. On every New Year's day, all debts must 
be liquidated and " the slate " must be clean for the 
operations of the coming year. The feast of the drag- 
on commemorated this important -occasion and the 
spectacles during the nine days festivities attending 
the New Year's celebration, were exceedingly novel 
and interesting. They smacked of oriental fetishism 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 161 

and with the beating of the tom-toms, the squeaking 
of reed instruments and the shouting of the fanatical 
populace, the scenes were weird and highly impres- 
sive. 

Underground life in Chinatown was unique, but re- 
pulsive to people of taste and refinement. The Chin- 
ese burrowed like rats, and countless tunnels, foul- 
smelling and repellant, were thronged with opium- 
smoking hordes of celestials. Crimes of every char- 
acter were committed in these underground retreats, 
almost without fear of punishment. Honeycombing 
the quarter with a system of tunnels, frequently reach- 
ing a depth of fifty feet, it is estimated that nearly one- 
half of the people of the quarter lived therein, removed 
from the light of the sun. As these tunnels seldom 
were walled up, it may be conceived that when the 
earthquake came, they caved in like sand, burying Chin- 
ese by the score. What scenes of indescribable hor- 
ror must have ensued when the fleeing Chinese, caught 
like rats in traps, found escape cut of! and inevitable 
death their portion. Then, happily, came asphyxia 
and speedy dissolution. 

The animosity early shown by the people of San 
Francisco towards the Chinese, who increased rapidly 
in numbers, was marked, and late in the seventies this 
resulted in the so-called " sand-lot riots." The cry, 
" the Chinese must go," was common and the agita- 
tion reached such a pitch that a political upheaval in 
the state ensued. Congress took cognizance of the 
situation and passed a law, still in force, prohibiting 
the entry into the country of coolie laborers from 
China. This had a salutary effect upon the Chinese 



162 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

immigration, which was appreciably curtailed. From 
time to time, however, the local authorities considered 
plans for the removal of the quarter from the heart of 
the city to Hunter's Point, beyond the Potrero on the 
south side of the city. These plans failed to mater- 
ialize, however, and it was only after the destruction 
of the quarter that Mayor Schmitz announced that the 
Chinese section henceforth would be at that point and 
that permission to the Mongols to rebuild upon their 
old sites, would be persistently refused. 

Thus, then, the famous Chinatown of San Francisco, 
known to the tourists of every quarter of the globe, 
has, in a night, become a memory. No more parties 
are to be organized at the leading hotels to tour the 
Chinese quarter, to inhale its myriad of smells, to pene- 
trate its dens, or inspect the countless objects of ori- 
ental interest it had to offer to visitors. The spectacles 
on the streets, where pipe-bowl menders squatted and 
plied their art ; vendors of edibles, of fruits, sold their 
wares to the accompaniment of weird cries; gaily 
dressed traffickers in slave girls openly bought and 
sold their human chattel ; peddlers of fruits and flowers, 
suspended in baskets from their shoulders, did a thriv- 
ing business ; fair almond-eyed maidens, seated on their 
balconies or peering from the picketed windows of 
their cells in the blind alleys; representative people of 
all nations walked, stumbled in their eager efforts not 
to miss a single thing — all these will be seen or heard 
no more. 

Gambling in Chinatown was common despite the 
efforts of the local authorities to suppress it. The 
Chinaman of Bret Harte is an inveterate gambler, and 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 163 

" for ways that are dark and tricks that are vain, the 
heathen Chinee is peculiar." Fan-tan among the 
Chinese of San Francisco virtually was their religion 
and behind heavy oaken, iron-studded doors, they in- 
dulged their passion unremittingly. Large funds were 
raised to secure immunity from arrest or interference 
and it is noted that many policemen who were for 
years stationed in the quarter, were enabled to retire 
and live in comfort after the periodical investigations 
of bribery in Chinatown, instituted by the authorities, 
had been concluded to their disparagement. 

The slave traffic in the quarter was openly carried 
on and it was prolific of endless feuds and the conse- 
quent loss of life and shedding of blood. To steal the 
slave girl of another was a crime for which death alone 
was adequate punishment. Secret societies of assas- 
sins known as hatch etmen did a thriving business when 
their services were required. Men were shot down or 
hacked to death with hatchets almost every week and 
investigation usually developed that a woman was at 
the bottom of the affair. The difficulty of apprehend- 
ing the murderers was at times enormous and a com- 
petent authority asserts that of the Chinese hanged in 
California in the past thirty years for murder, far more 
than one-half were guiltless. This was the inevitable 
result of the endless feuds among the rival tongs, and 
the lack of reverence of the Chinese for an oath in 
American courts of justice breeding contempt of law 
and placing a premium upon perjury. 

From the standpoint of sanitation, the presence of 
Chinatown was a blot upon San Francisco and its re- 
moval must ultimately prove a blessing in the future. 



164 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

But its associations, picturesque and romantic as they 
were, will long be identified with the history of the 
city, if indeed they will be wholly blotted out. . In 
the new San Francisco that is to rise out of the ashes 
of the old city, the phantoms of the past will thrust 
up their sallow fronts, reminding all that the glories of 
the past should not be obliterated by the achievements 
of the present. Hence there will be many who will 
view the passing of Chinatown with regret and look at 
the site upon which it once stood with sincere longing 
for the days and novel scenes that are to be no more. 



CHAPTER XII 

NOTED LANDMARKS GONE 

Palaces of Pioneers, Great Hotels and Famous Build- 
ings Destroyed in the Cataclysm — Stanford, Flood, 
Huntington and Crocker Mansions Wiped Out — 
Well Known Restaurants and Bohemian Resorts 
Burned — -Fine Theaters, Newspaper Offices and 
Mammoth Department Stores Go Down in Ruin — 
Government Mint Alone is Saved. 

With the destruction of San Francisco there passed 
away many old landmarks made famous by association 
with the early history of California. With these dis- 
appeared the newer monuments to the commercial 
prosperity of the metropolis of the Pacific Coast. 
Great business structures, magnificent hotels, palatial 
residences, noted theaters and restaurants, all went 
down in the common fate that overwhelmed the city. 

Art as well as commerce suffered irreparable losses. 
The beautiful monument to Robert Louis Stevenson; 
the column erected to commemorate Dewey's victory 
at Manila; Lotta's drinking fountain; priceless collec- 
tions of paintings in the Mark Hopkins Art Institute 
and the homes of millionaires, all were destroyed. 

In one instance a valuable lot of paintings and tap- 
estries was saved from the flames. This was the col- 
lection of William H. Crocker, which includes Millet's 
" Man With The Hoe," and pictures by Tenniel, Troy- 

165 



166 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

on, Paul Potter, Corot, Monet, Renoir, Puvis de Cha- 
vannes, Pissaro and Constable. The tapestries are six 
Flemish pieces, dating from the sixteenth century, the 
finest being a " Resurrection/' a splendid example 
of tissue d'or work once owned by the due d'Albe. 
These works of art were saved by Mr. Crocker's but- 
ler. 

One of the first of the famous buildings to fall a 
prey to the flames after the destruction of the business 
district was the Palace Hotel. It was built in the '70s 
by James Ralston at a cost of $6,000,000, and was 
owned by the Sharon estate. Many of San Fran- 
cisco's wealthiest families made their homes at the 
Palace, and personal property losses in art treasures, 
etc., were very great. 

The Stanford mansion, the Huntington, the Flood 
and the two Crocker mansions were swept away. 
These were the handsomest private residences in San 
Francisco, and were built in the early days of the city's 
greatness by men who played important roles in the 
development of the Pacific Coast. 

Down near the business district, at the corner of 
Post Street and Grant Avenue, stood the Bohemian 
Club, one of the widest-known social organizations in 
the world. Its membership list includes the names 
of many men who have achieved fame in art, literature 
and the commercial world. Its rooms were decorated 
with the works of artist-members, many of whose 
names are known wherever paintings are discussed. 
Many of these were saved. The annual summer 
" jinks " of the Bohemian Club, amid sylvan scenes at 
Redwood Grove, is a unique celebration. 







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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 169 

On special exhibition in the " jinks " room of the 
Bohemian Club were a dozen paintings by the old 
masters, including a Rembrandt, a Diaz, a Murillo and 
others, probably worth $100,000. These paintings, 
which were loaned for exhibition, were saved. 

The district on California Street from Powell to 
Jones Streets, known as Nob Hill, contained the most 
palatial homes of San Francisco. The summit of the 
hill is perhaps 500 feet above the sea level, and a mag- 
nificent view of San Francisco Bay and the country 
for many miles around can be had from that point. 

At the southwest corner of California and Powell 
Streets, just on the brink of the hill, was the residence 
of the late Leland Stanford. At the death of Mrs. 
Stanford about a year ago in Honolulu the mansion 
became the property of Leland Stanford University. 
It contained many art treasures of great value. 

On the southeast corner of the same block stood the 
home of the late Mark Hopkins, who amassed many 
millions along with Stanford, C. P. Huntington and 
Charles Crocker in the construction of the Central 
Pacific Railroad from Ogden to Sacramento. The 
Hopkins home was presented to the University of Cal- 
ifornia by his heirs, and it was known as the Hopkins 
Art Institute. 

Across California Street from the Stanford and Hop- 
kins homes was the Fairmount Hotel, which had been 
under construction for more than two years. It was 
a handsome white stone structure, seven stories high, 
occupying an entire block. The land was owned by 
the late Senator James Fair, who was associated with 
John W. Mackay, James Flood and James O'Brien, 



170 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

all of whom amassed great fortunes in Nevada mines. 

The Fairmount Hotel was built by Mrs. Herman 
Oelrichs, who, before her marriage, was Miss Therese 
Alice Fair, daughter of Senator Fair and sister of Mrs. 
W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr. Not long before the earth- 
quake she traded the hotel, which was valued at $3,- 
000,000, for the Rialto and Crosby Buildings, and both 
of these were destroyed. 

One block west of the Fairmount was the Flood 
home, a huge brown stone mansion, said to have cost 
more than $1,000,000. The Huntington home, which 
was the least pretentious of the residences of the " big 
four," occupied the block on California Street, just 
west of the Flood house. The Crocker residence, with 
its huge lawns and magnificent stables, was on the 
west of the Huntington home. Many other beautiful 
and costly homes were situated on the hill. 

The Southern Pacific Hospital, at Fourteenth and 
Mission Streets, was dynamited, the patients having 
been removed to places of safety. The Linda Vista 
and the Pleasanton, two large family hotels on Jones 
Street, in the better part of the city, were blown up. 

Farther west on Post Street stood the home of the 
Olympic Club, the oldest regularly organized athletic 
association in the United States, and famous for its 
appointments and for the number of athletes it has de- 
veloped. The building was worth $300,000, and its 
furnishings were of the finest quality. Nothing re- 
mains but a mass of steel and stone. 

The great new Flood Building, built by James Flood 
at a cost of $4,000,000 and occupied about a year ago ; 
the new Merchants' Exchange Building on California 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 171 

Street, erected at a cost of $2,500,000; the Crocker 
Building at Montgomery and Market Streets, a $1,- 
000,000 structure; the Mills Building at Bush and 
Montgomery, costing the same sum; the new Shreve 
Building, at Post Street and Grant Avenue, costing 
$2,000,000, and occupied by the largest jewelry store 
on the coast, were some of the new structures de- 
stroyed. 

On Market Street the Phelan Building, one of the 
earliest attempts at a pretentious work of architecture 
in the business district and covering the most valuable 
piece of real estate in San Francisco, is gone. The 
great group of buildings that stood on a piece of ground 
bounded by Larkin, McAllister and Grove Streets, 
erected by the City of San Francisco at a cost of $7,- 
000,000 and known as the city and county buildings, 
became a mass of ruins. 

The beautiful St. Francis Hotel, facing Union 
Square, erected at a cost of $4,500,000, was burned to 
the ground. 

The magnificent group of buildings at Van Ness 
Avenue and Hayes Street of the St. Ignatius College 
and Cathedral, probably worth $2,000,000, and St. 
Dominick's Church on Steiner Street, near California, 
and the Emanuel Synagogue, a handsome structure of 
the oriental type on Sutter Street, were wiped out. 

The branch United States Mint on Fifth Street near 
Market was not destroyed, but was damaged to a con- 
siderable extent. Its escape was due to the fact that 
it occupies a large square, separated from surrounding 
buildings by a wide paved space. Two blocks west of 
the mint stood the splendid new postoffice building, 



172 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

finished about six months ago and erected at a cost of 
$2,000,000 for actual construction. It was one of the 
most beautiful buildings in the United States, said to 
have been equaled in architectural excellence only by 
the new Congressional Library at Washington. It 
was destroyed. 

Down in the older business sections were many old 
landmarks, but they exist no longer. The Occidental 
Hotel, on Montgomery Street, for years the headquar- 
ters for army officers that visited San Francisco; the 
old Lick House, built by the philanthropist, James 
Lick; the old Russ House, also on Montgomery Street; 
the Nevada National Bank Block, the Hayward Build- 
ing at California and Montgomery, a modern structure 
of ten stories; then to the eastward the splendid ex- 
ample of the severe Gothic style, the California Na- 
tional Bank; the First National Bank, the First Cana- 
dian Bank of Commerce, the London and San Fran- 
cisco, on California Street; the London, Paris and 
American Bank and the Bank of British North Amer- 
ica, on Sansome Street; the large German-American 
Savings Bank, also on California, all were destroyed. 

The California Hotel and Theater on Bush Street, 
near Montgomery; the Grand Opera House, on Mis- 
sion Street, where the Conried Grand Opera Company 
had just opened for a series of three weeks' opera; the 
Orpheum, the Columbia, the Alcazar, the Majestic 
the Central and Fisher's were some of the playhouses 
to which pleasure-loving San Francisco was wont to 
flock. All were burned. 

Among the splendid apartment houses destroyed 
were: 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 173 

On Geary Street — The St. Augustine, the Alexan- 
dria, the Victoria. 

On Sutter — The Pleasanton, the Aberdeen, the Wal- 
deck, the Granada. 

On Pine Street — The Colonial, the Loma Vista, the 
Buena Vista. 

On Ellis — The DufTerin, the Hamilton, the Ellis, the 
Royal, the Hart, the Ascot and St. Catherine. 

On O'Farrell Street — The Eugene, the Knox, the 
St. George, the Ramon, the Gotham. 

On Taylor Street— The Abbey. 

On Eddy Street— The Abbotsford. 

On Turk Street — The Netherlands. 

On Pol Street — The Savoy. 

On Bush Street— The Plymouth. 

San Francisco was famous for the excellence of its 
restaurants. Many of these were known wherever 
the traveler discussed good living. Among them were 
the "Pup" and Marchand's, on Stockton Street; the 
Poodle Dog, one of the most ornate, distinctive res- 
taurant buildings in the United States; Zinkand's and 
the Fiesta, on Market street; the famous Palace grill 
in the Palace Hotel, and scores of Bohemian resorts in 
the old part of San Francisco. They are no more. 

At the junction of Kearney, Market and Geary 
Streets stood the three great newspaper buildings of 
San Francisco — the Call, the most conspicuous struct- 
ure in all the city, seventeen stories high; across the 
street, the Hearst Building, the home of the Examiner, 
and to the north of this, on the opposite side of Mar- 
ket Street, the Chronicle, a modern ten-story news- 
paper and office building, with the sixteen-story annex 



174 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

under course of construction. All were destroyed. 
Two blocks north on Kearney Street were the Bulletin 
and the Post Buildings. They also are gone. 

Among the mammoth department stores destroyed 
were the Emporium, Hales & Fragers', on Market; 
on Kearney Street, the White House, O'Connor & 
Moffatt's, Newman & Levinson's, Roos Brothers', Ra- 
phael's, the Hub and many lesser establishments; on 
Geary Street, the Davis, the City of Paris, Samuel's; 
on Post Street, Vel Strauss'; on Sansom Street, Wal- 
lace's, Nathan, Dohrman & Co.'s and Bullock & Jones'. 



CHAPTER XIII 

RUIN OF SAN JOSE AND SANTA ROSA 

Two of California's Prettiest Cities Destroyed by the 
Earthquake — Business Districts Leveled by the 
Shock and Dwellings Shattered — Flames Sweep the 
Wreckage — Many Persons Perish — Fatal Landslide 
on Loma Prieta Mountain — Score of Towns Along 
Coast Suffer Severely. 

Quite overshadowed by the destruction of San Fran- 
cisco, but in itself a ^tremendous disaster, was the fate 
that overcame other cities along the California coast. 
Stricken by the same earthquake that shattered the 
metropolis, the beautiful towns of San Jose and Santa 
Rosa fell in ruins, and a dozen others sustained dam- 
age more or less serious. The total property loss in 
these places approximated $12,000,000 and many per- 
sons were killed. The larger towns were put under 
martial law and patrolled by militia, and relief work 
was begun promptly. 

In San Jose, one of the prettiest cities of California, 
the ruin was almost complete. The entire business 
section was destroyed, and scarcely a building in the 
place escaped serious damage. Nineteen persons were 
killed. Among the buildings wrecked by the shock 
were the St. Patrick's, First Presbyterian, Centella 
Methodist, Central Christian and South Methodist 
Churches ; Auzerias Building, Elks Club, Unique Thea- 

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176 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ter, High School, Rucker Building and Vendome Hotel 
Annex. The Dougherty Building and several adjoin- 
ing blocks were destroyed by fire. 

Near San Jose, at Agnew, occurred one of the most 
distressing incidents of the disaster. The state hos- 
pital for the insane was located there and the earth- 
quake demolished the buildings of that institution. 
Eleven officers and employes of the asylum perished 
and of the patients nearly two hundred were killed and 
most of the others injured. When the buildings col- 
lapsed many of the patients were pinned under the 
fallen walls. 

The padded cells had to be broken open and more 
dangerous patients were tied to trees out on the lawn 
in lieu of a safer place. The doctors and nurses stuck 
heroically to their posts and ioo students from Santa 
Clara College went over in a body to assist in succor- 
ing the wounded. Tents were set up in the grounds of 
the institution and there the patients were cared for 
until a temporary building could be erected to house 
them. 

In the catastrophe at Santa Rosa about one hundred 
persons lost their lives and the damage to property 
was estimated at $800,000. This beautiful town is in 
the prosperous county of Sonoma and has a population 
of 7,000. When the earthquake shocks came the 
business portion fell in ruins and nearly every resi- 
dence was damaged, many being badly wrecked. The 
brick and stone business blocks, together with the pub- 
lic buildings, were all thrown flat. The court house, 
Hall of Records, the Occidental and Santa Rosa 
Hotels, the Athenaeum Theater, the new Masonic Tern- 






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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 181 

pie, Odd Fellows' Block, all the banks — everything — 
went, and in all the city not one brick or stone building 
was left standing, except the California Northwestern 
Depot. 

Then, as in San Francisco, fires broke out at many 
points and swept over the ruins. 

The entire population of the town fled to the out- 
skirts and slept in the open for many nights, being 
afraid to occupy their shattered houses. There was no 
suffering from hunger, however, for provisions were 
brought in from the surrounding country at once. 
Two blocks of buildings, also, had escaped the flames 
and from their ruins large quantities of groceries and 
clothing were obtained and added to the common store. 
A company of militia and forty marines from Mare 
Island preserved order and helped in rescuing the in- 
jured and recovering the bodies of the dead. 

At Palo Alto the beautiful buildings of Stanford 
University were thrown down and several persons 
killed. Berkeley, too, suffered severely, the city hall 
and many business blocks being shattered, though the 
University of California escaped as by a miracle. The 
final shock of the morning caused a tidal wave that 
inundated the bay side of the city for several hundred 
yards. 

The City of Salinas, near San Francisco, was badly 
damaged by the first shock, and two other shocks oc- 
curred in the afternoon. The total damage in Salinas 
was $2,000,000. 

Spr£ckels' sugar factory, about three miles from 
Salinas, was destroyed, with a loss of $1,500,000. 
Among the buildings destroyed in the town were the 



182 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Ford & Stanbury Building, dry goods; Elks' Hall, 
Masonic Building, the Knights of Pythias Building, 
Armory, Porter & Irving's store, Logan Cyclery, Odd 
Fellows' Building, city hall and high school. Every 
window in the city was broken, and chimneys toppled 
over and crashed through roofs. No lives were lost, 
though several persons were injured. 

A terrible landslide occurred on Loma Prieta Moun- 
tain. Nine men were buried alive in their cabins at 
the Hinckley creek mill of the Loma Prieta Lumber 
Company. The slide came down one side of the can- 
yon and swept over to the other side, burying the saw 
mill and the cabins in ioo feet of dirt. Another fatal 
landslide occurred at Deer Creek mill, just above 
Boulder Creek, two men, John Hannah and James 
Franklin, being caught in their cabins and killed. 

Watsonville sustained much damage to buildings, 
the Pajaro Valley Bank, the Porter Building and the 
high school being more or less damaged. 

At Napa many buildings were shattered, and the 
property loss amounted to $250,000. Damage to the 
extent of $40,000 was caused at Vallejo. At Collins- 
ville, on the Sacramento River, the shock wrecked a 
hotel without injuring any of the inmates. Chim- 
neys were toppled over at Woodlands, and the tremor 
of the earth was plainly felt at Hazen, Nevada, fifty 
miles beyond Wadsworth. 

Fort Bragg, one of the principal lumbering towns 
of Mendocino County, was almost destroyed by a fire 
that followed the earthquake shock. The bank and 
otker brick buildings were leveled by the seismic dis- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 183 

turbance. One man was killed and scores of per- 
sons were injured. 

The town of Tomales, Marin County, also was 
ruined and two children were killed. All the large 
stores and the new Catholic Church, a stone structure, 
were leveled by the shock. 

Oakland suffered a property loss of about $500,000 
and Alameda about $400,000, but the loss of life in 
these places was small. 

Stockton felt the quake severely, and the Santa Fe 
bridge over the San Joaquin River settled several 
inches. No indication of the earthquake was percepti- 
ble at Santa Barbara and south of there. It was felt 
as far north as Marshfield, Oregon, and telegraph wires 
along the Union Pacific Railroad were thrown down 
as far east as Ogden. 

In Santa Cruz, on Monterey Bay, the court house 
and twelve other buildings collapsed. The shock was 
followed by a tidal wave that swept away three build- 
ings on the beach. 

In Solano County a long section of the Southern Pa- 
cific Railroad disappeared from view between the sta- 
tions of Sprig and Teal in the Suisun marshes. For 
a distance of a mile and a half the track sank down 
from three to six feet, and at another point nearly 1,000 
feet of track completely disappeared. Great crevasses 
opened on each side of the track through the marshes, 
and a wide sea of water flowed over the lowlands be- 
tween Suisun and Benecia. A short distance below 
Suisun a switch engine sank into the ground a depth of 
three feet. 

The villages of Healdsburg, Geyserville, Cloverdalt, 



184 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Hopeland and Ukiah were badly shaken, and Brawley, 
a little town 120 miles south of Los Angeles, was prac- 
tically destroyed. 

J. E. Rainey made a trip through the country be- 
tween Monterey, Castroville and Tajaro just after the 
seismic disturbance and thus told what he saw there: 

" Great sinks, extending along the tracks as far as 
the eye could reach and ranging from four to six feet 
in depth, have been left in the surface of the earth, a 
mute testimony of the awful twisting and wrenching 
of the internal forces. 

" For distances of from one-quarter to three-quar- 
ters of a mile the road bed has dropped from four to 
six feet. 

" Between Castroville and Monterey, along the rail- 
road tracks and in the fields, mud geysers have been 
excited into action, spouting a boiling hot, bluish, shale- 
colored mud to a height of from ten to twelve feet. 
In places these geysers are from four to ten feet apart 
and in other sections they are fifty feet or more apart. 

" At Fairman Section Foreman H. J. Hall and Road- 
master Goldman saw these geysers in violent action. 
The mud was spouted through the sand and loam. I 
saw this mud along the tracks for several miles, with 
here and there places where the geysers had been re- 
cently at work. 

" The railroad tracks for almost the entire distance 
are twisted out of all semblance of tracks. Between 
Seaside and Del Monte the tracks have settled fully 
four fe( t and the rails have been twisted all shapes. 

" Neai Castroville, while the disturbance was at its 
height, Ft reman H. J. Hall grabbed his two children 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 185 

and left the section house. As they passed through 
the door they saw the earth open and a crevasse, which 
Hall described as fully six feet wide, open and close 
several times. I visited the scene at midnight and 
found the section house standing in a pool of geyser 
mud. This mud was like quicksand, and of unknown 
depth. 

" Panic reigned at the Hotel Del Monte immediately 
following the first earthquake shock, which proved to 
be the most disastrous to that famous hostelry. The 
roof and a portion of the upper floor was wrecked and 
fell in upon the heads of the unsuspecting guests. So 
far as could be ascertained but two persons lost their 
lives — a bride and bridegroom from Arizona. " 

The state prison at San Quentin stood the shock 
well. The walls were cracked and a few chimneys 
were upset, but no further damage was done. Dur- 
ing the first big shock the convicts set up wails that 
could be heard for a mile. They acted like wild ani- 
mals and tore at their bars like maniacs. Warden 
Edgar called out all guards, lined the walls and re- 
leased the prisoners into the big yard. 



CHAPTER XIV 

DESTRUCTION OFTEN PREDICTED 

San Francisco Many Times Shaken by Earthquakes — 
Geologists Had Expected Disaster Because of City's 
Dangerous Location — Two Hundred and Fifty 
Shocks in Fifty Years, Though Loss of Life Was 
Infrequent — Dire Prophecies of Seers — Serious Fires 
in Golden Gate City's Earlier Days. 

The fate that befell San Francisco had long been 
expected by scientists. The city's location was more 
dangerous than that of any other large city in the 
United States and often had its destruction by earth- 
quake been predicted. Seismic shocks have been of 
common occurrence along the Pacific Coast of Cali- 
fornia, and nowhere had they been felt oftener than 
in the Golden Gate City. But the warnings of geol- 
ogists and of nature were alike unheeded by the de- 
voted city. Its people went on erecting palatial build- 
ings and beautiful residences, growing happier, more 
prosperous and more gay year by year, ever trusting 
that their glorious city would be spared serious dam- 
age in the future as it had been in the past. 

" Scientists have known for many years that San 
Francisco is dangerously located and probably would 
sooner or later be subject to severe shocks/' said Presi- 
dent Charles R. Van Hise of the University of Wis- 
consin, one of the best known geologists in the United 

186 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 187 

States. " The fear repeatedly has been expressed that 
San Francisco would be the first to show the effect of 
an earthquake upon modern structures, for it has been 
well understood that the city has the most dangerous 
location with reference to earthquakes of any large 
city in the United States." 

And the end is not yet, if authorities are to be be- 
lieved. The scientists of Yale College agree that the 
whole California region is liable to be attacked by 
earthquakes at any time. Professor Louis V. Pirr- 
son, head of the Department of Physical Geography, 
said: 

" The whole configuration of the California coast 
shows that there will continue to be earthquakes in 
that region. It would be the part of prudence to put 
up buildings with that condition in view. 

" It doubtless would be difficult to connect this with 
any recent shock on any other part of the globe. The 
earth is so big that a city of the size of San Francisco 
is a mere grain of sand on its surface, yet there have 
been earthquakes which have been a series of shocks 
which have passed along almost around the globe/' 

Professor J. Paul Goode of the Geography Depart- 
ment of the University of Chicago said: " The earth- 
quake in California probably was caused by the posi- 
tion of the Rocky Mountains. These mountains are 
still young and in process of formation. They are 
slowly rising, and the quake is simply one of the symp- 
toms. The process of adjustment is slow, and it is 
reasonable to suppose that other earthquakes as vio- 
lent as this one will result in the same place. " 

" It is probable that this great earthquake is the 



188 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

result of movements along one or more fault lines in 
the course of the natural growth of the coast ranges, 
which geologists long have known to be still in prog- 
ress throughout the entire extent of California," said 
Ralph Stockman Tarr, professor of dynamic geology 
and physical geography at Cornell University. " That 
the coast ranges are growing is proved by numerous 
evidences. There are upraised shore lines at various 
points along the California coast, proving recent up- 
lift. The Bay of San Francisco is the result of a 
geologically recent subsidence of this part of the coast 
which has admitted the sea into the gorge that the 
Sacramento River formerly cut across the coast ranges. 
This forms the Golden Gate, and in the broader moun- 
tain valley behind the sea has spread out to form the 
bay. If the center of greatest disturbance was in or 
near San Francisco, the site of that city is in danger 
of future upheavals." 

In Europe, as well as in America, the San Fran- 
cisco earthquake was the topic of study and discus- 
sion by scientists for many weeks. Seismographists 
propounded various theories as to its cause, opinion . 
being divided as to its connection with Vesuvius. In 
Great Britain it was suggested that Edinburg is in the 
danger zone just as San Francisco is. Certainly the 
Scottish capital is built upon an extinct volcano. Here 
are a few of the theories put forward by eminent Brit- 
ish seismographists to account for the disaster: 

Contraction of the earth's surface, the release of over- 
heated steam in the interior of the earth, the failure 
of the earth to swing true on its axis owing to the ac- 
tion of sunspots, a landslip of geological strata. 




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ST. FRANCIS HOTEL AND THE DEWEY MONUMENT. 

This monument, made of white marble, was erected by the people of San Fran- 
cisco in commemoration of Dewey's famous victory. It is in Union Square in the 
heart of the city. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 191 

Most interesting of all is the statement by Prof. 
Milne, who is considered the most eminent of English 
seismic experts, and who, at his home in the Isle of 
Wight, has an instrument which not only tells him 
whenever an earthquake occurs, but the exact spot on 
the earth. The instrument consists of an object like 
a common street lamppost set upon a pedestal of con- 
crete which is sunk down through the earth to a chalk 
substratum. This lamppost is sensitive to every vibra- 
tion of the earth, and is connected with a needle which 
passes across a cylinder of paper blackened by being 
held over an ordinary lamp. 

When a disturbance of the earth's surface takes place 
the lamppost is shaken, and the connecting wire at 
once transfers the vibration to the smoked paper. The 
length of the scratches enables an observer to calcu- 
late the extent of the earthquake and its distance away 
from the recording instrument. Prof. Milne was out 
golfing at the time of the San Francisco earthquake, 
but on returning home a glance at the instrument told 
him that a tremendous upheaval of the earth's crust 
had taken place. It was the work of a few moments 
to calculate where it had taken place. 

Having developed his photographic records, Prof. 
Milne was able to discuss the origin of the earthquake, 
which, he said, was evidently upon land. If it had 
been sub-oceanic it is probable that there would have 
been great sea waves. Its origin, therefore, is pre- 
sumably in the range of hills running parallel to the 
coast, at the foot of which lies San Francisco. 

This range of hills may be regarded as an addition 
to the western coast of North America when the Sierra 



192 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Nevada had been raised up, which occurred after the 
formation of chalk in England. The site of San Fran- 
cisco was beneath the ocean. Sediments accumulated 
until they attained enormous thickness. By horizontal 
pressure these were buckled up to form the coast range, 
and the great disturbance which has just taken place 
indicates this kind of activity is still in operation. 

The probability is that these strata have been over- 
bent and have suddenly yielded with a crash, and a 
great fault or fracture in the earth's crust has been 
formed. On one side the ground has suddenly fallen, 
and it was the impact of this on what was beneath which 
gave rise to the great shakings which have been propa- 
gated all over the world and ended so disastrously for 
San Francisco. 

Sir Robert Ball's opinion was asked as to the pos- 
sible connection of the eruption of Vesuvius and other 
recent seismic disturbances and the disaster at San 
Francisco. 

" To the popular mind," he said, " the connection 
would seem obvious, but I do not think they had any 
direct relation to one another. In this view I am 
backed up by the opinion of Prof. Milne, who is the 
greatest living authority on the subject. Had there 
been any connection I should have looked for some 
special manifestation in the Sandwich Islands." 

Professor Matteucci, director of the observatory on 
Mt. Vesuvius, sent from his perilous post on the vol- 
cano the following opinion on the California earth- 
quake : 

" Notwithstanding the distance separating Mount 
Vesuvius from California and in spite of lack of exact 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 193 

coincidence between the eruption of the volcano and 
the earthquake at San Francisco, I believe that a close 
relation exists between the two phenomena, which I 
consider to be different effects of a common cause. 

" The surface of the earth, since the remote epoch 
of the formation of its solid crust, has suffered lacera- 
tion if it yielded to internal pressure, thus producing 
volcanic eruptions, or, when it resists the pressure of 
incandescent masses below, has reproduced their mo- 
tions, which we call earthquake. My opinion is that 
the eruption and earthquake have reciprocal and in- 
timate connection, which is rendered most evident by 
the present phenomena at Mount Vesuvius and in Cal- 
ifornia." 

"The slipping of the rocks, perhaps only a fraction 
of an inch, not more than three or four, is probably 
the cause of the San Francisco catastrophe," said Henry 
Windsor Nichols, assistant curator of the Field Co- 
lumbian Museum, Chicago, the day after the quake. 
" The Sierra Madre Mountains, geologically speak- 
ing, are young and are still slowly growing. The fault- 
ing of the rocks is going on too rapidly, causing a fract- 
ure. All along the mountain range there is a line of 
weakness, and from the meager data at our disposal I 
think the earthquake due to such a slipping. When 
we get the results from the various seismographs we 
can form definite conclusions. There are no seismo- 
graphs in Chicago, because the jar of the street car 
or heavy traffic would cause as great a disturbance as 
does a great earthquake. 

" I think perhaps the conditions in California are 
similar to those of the great Charleston earthquake, 



194 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and do not believe this shock holds any relation to the 
eruptions of Vesuvius. There is no reason why the 
shock should come to San Francisco rather than any 
other place along the coast. Judging from the be- 
havior of previous earthquakes, this one has spent its 
force, though tremors of more or less force may be 
expected for several days. 

" Chicago is almost entirely free from danger of an 
earthquake. There are no mountain ranges close 
enough to affect it, and, while the land here seems to 
be gradually sinking, it is not of such a character as to 
cause earthquakes. " 

Professor U. S. Grant, head of the geological depart- 
ment at Northwestern University, was of the opinion 
that the earthquake which shook the western coast 
was in no way connected with the eruptions which 
had occurred recently at Mount Vesuvius. He ascribed 
the seismic disturbances to the reformation of the earth 
which is constantly going on under the earth's crust 
in that locality, and cited instances of slight earth- 
quakes which had occurred in that vicinity during the 
previous three months at the rate of two to three a 
month. 

" California and the coast states are the most noted 
places in the world for these earthquakes," said the 
professor. " According to the data of the Lick Ob- 
servatory, two or three shocks are felt each month. 
This one seems to be far greater in extent and severity 
than any previous one/' 

Professor Joseph Kathan, who was present with the 
noted Italian, Professor Palmicri, at the eruption of 
Vesuvius in 1881-2, when Palmicri invented the seis- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 195 

mograph, an instrument recording the time and the 
force of the shock, said: 

" California lies in what is known as the volcanic 
belt, which runs entirely around the world, including 
Vesuvius, Aetna in Italy, Formosa in Japan, and the 
western coast of the United States in its course. The 
entire belt is affected when such violent internal dis- 
turbances take place, such as those at Vesuvius. 

" Martinique, which is w r ell known as a center of vol- 
canic action, is the beginning of this line, which in- 
cludes the Canary Islands, portions of Spain, and a 
large part of Italy in its path. Aetna and Mount Ve- 
suvius in Italy are both in the direct path. Southern 
Russia is touched, then the Island of Japan, particu- 
larly Formosa, comes, the line going from Formosa to 
the western coast of the United States. It w r as in the 
regular course of the volcanic belt that California was 
reached." 

Mark Twain, who was a newspaper man in San Fran- 
cisco in 1868, thus describes the earthquake that stirred 
the city that year: 

" It was just after noon on a bright October day. I 
was coming down Third Street. The only objects in 
motion anywhere in sight in that thickly built and pop- 
ulous quarter were a man in a buggy behind me, and a 
street car wending slowly up a cross street. Other- 
wise all was solitude and a Sabbath stillness. As I 
turned a corner around a frame house there was a 
great rattle and jar, and it occurred to me that here 
was an item — no doubt a fight in that house. 

" Before I could turn and seek the door there came a 
really terrific shock; the ground seemed to roll under 



196 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

me in waves, interrupted by a violent joggling up and 
down. There was a heavy grinding noise as of brick 
houses rubbing together. I fell up against the frame 
house and hurt my elbow. I knew what it was by 
this time, and from mere reportorial instinct — noth- 
ing else- — took out my watch and noted the time of 
day. At that moment a third and still more severe 
shock came, and as I reeled about on the pavement, 
trying to keep my footing, I saw sights both tragic and 
comic. 

" The entire front of a tall, four-story brick building 
in Third Street sprung outward like a door and fell 
sprawling across the street, raising a dust like a great 
volume of smoke. And the man in the buggy went 
overboard, and in less time than I can tell it the ve- 
hicle was distributed in small fragments along 300 
yards of street. One could have fancied that some 
one had fired a charge of chair rounds and rags down 
the thoroughfare. The street car had stopped. 

" The horses were rearing and plunging, the passen- 
gers rushing out at both ends. One fat man had 
crushed half way through a glass window on one side 
of the car, got wedged fast and was squirming and 
squealing like an impaled madman. 

" Every door, every house, as far as the eye could 
reach, was vomiting a stream of human beings, and 
almost before one could execute a wink and begin an- 
other there was a massed multitude of people stretch- 
ing in endless procession down every street my posi- 
tion commanded. Never was solemn solitude turned 
into teeming life more quickly. 

"The wonders wrought by the great earthquake— 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 197 

these were all that came under my eye, but the tricks 
it did elsewhere and the fire and light over the town 
made toothsome gossip for nine days. The destruc- 
tion of property was trifling — the injury to it was 
widespread and somewhat serious. 

" The 'curiosities' of the earthquake were simply end- 
less. Men and women who were ill or were taking a 
siesta or had dissipated to a late hour and were making 
up lost sleep thronged into the public streets in all 
sorts of queer apparel, and some without any at all. 
One woman who had been washing a naked child ran 
down the street holding it by the ankles as if it had 
been a dressed turkey. 

" Crowds of citizens who were supposed to keep the 
Sabbath strictly rushed out of saloons in their shirt- 
sleeves, with billiard cues in their hands. Dozens of 
men, with their necks swathed in napkins, rushed from 
barber shops, lathered to the eyes, or with one cheek 
clean shaved and the other still bearing a hairy stub- 
ble. Horses broke from stables and a frightened dog 
rushed up a short attic ladder and out onto a roof, and 
when his scare was over had not the nerve to go down 
again the same way he had gone up. 

" The plastering that fell from ceilings in San Fran- 
cisco that day would have covered acres of ground. 
For some days afterward groups of eyeing and point- 
ing men stood about many a building, looking at long, 
zig-zag cracks that extended from the eaves to the 
ground. Four feet of the tops of three chimneys on 
one house were broken squarely ofT, and turned around 
in such a way as to completely stop the draught. A 
crack a hundred feet long gaped open six inches wide 



198 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

in the middle of one street and then shut together again 
with such force as to ridge up the meeting earth like 
a slender grave. 

" A woman, sitting in her rocking and quaking par- 
lor, saw the wall part at the ceiling, open and shut 
twice like a mouth, and then drop the end of a brick 
on the floor, like a tooth. She was a woman easily 
disgusted with foolishness, and she arose and went 
out of there. One woman who was coming down- 
stairs was astonished to see a bronze Hercules lean 
forward on its pedestal as if to strike her with its 
club. They both reached the bottom of the flight at 
the same time in a pile. 

" The first shock brought down two or three huge 
organ pipes in one of the churches. The minister, with 
uplifted hands, was just closing the services. He 
glanced up, hesitated, and said: 

" ' However, we will omit the benediction/ In the 
next instant there was a vacancy in the atmosphere 
where he had stood. 

" After the first shock an Oakland minister said: 
' Keep your seats. There is no better place to die than 
this,' and added after a third: 'But outside is good 
enough.' He then skipped out of the back door. 

" Such another destruction of mantel ornaments and 
toilet bottles as the earthquake created San Francisco 
never saw before. There was hardly a girl or matron 
in the city but suffered losses of this kind. Suspended 
pictures were thrown down, but, oftener still, by a curi- 
ous freak of the earthquake's humor, they were whirled 
completely around with the faces to the wall. Thou- 
sands of people were made so seasick by the rolling 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 199 

and pitching of floors and streets that they were weak 
and bedridden for hours, and some few for even days 
afterward. Hardly an individual escaped entirely." 

Not since 1872 had there been an earthquake in Cali- 
fornia accompanied by loss of life. In that year, on 
March 26 and 27, there was a most severe earthquake 
in the Inyo Valley. The records state that several 
small towns were destroyed and about thirty lives lost. 
The quake extended to San Francisco, where the walls 
of several fine public buildings were cracked and dam- 
age was done to the Lick House, a famous and historic 
San Francisco hotel. 

In the last fifty years more than 250 earthquake 
shocks have been recorded in San Francisco. The 
most severe were in 1868 and 1898. In 1868 much 
damage was done to the city and 'many lives were 
lost. 

The disturbance of 1898 did not result in loss of life, 
but caused much damage to property. This shock 
occurred at 11:43 p. m., March 31, and houses all over 
the city were shaken to their foundations. 

The Mare Island Navy Yard was damaged to the 
extent of $150,000, and since then no buildings more 
than two stories high have been constructed on the 
government reservation. This shock of 1898 was con- 
fined to central and northern California, and severe 
damage was reported from interior state points. 

.The first recorded disturbance in California oc- 
curred in 1790. Of all the cities on the Pacific sea- 
board, San Francisco seems especially ill-fated. Fifty- 
one earthquakes visited that city from 1851 to 1865. 

Sixteen times was the city shaken in 1865. The 



200 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

i 
most severe shock of that year, San Francisco's ban- 
ner earthquake year, occurred October 8th, and lasted 
twelve hours and forty-six minutes. No lives were 
lost, though the shocks were the most violent since the 
annexation of the territory. San Francisco, San Jose, 
Stockton, Santa Cruz, and Sacramento felt them. 

A rather severe earthquake occurred in San Fran- 
cisco about the middle of January, 1900. Several dis- 
tinct shocks were felt early in the morning, causing 
the vibration of buildings all over the city. The chief 
building affected was the St. Nicholas Hotel, which 
was severely shaken. The walls collapsed in parts 
of the structure and patrons were thrown out of bed 
and furniture was destroyed. 

In 1894 there was a severe seismic disturbance in 
Los Angeles, which was felt throughout the city and 
for a radius of several miles all around. No actual 
damage was done, but this was the most severe shock 
ever felt in southern California. 

A man named Cricksor once prophesied that San 
Francisco, Oakland, Chicago and New York would be 
destroyed by earthquakes on April 14, 1890. The ap- 
proach of this date caused a wild panic in San Fran- 
cisco, and early in April real estate values actually 
suffered serious depreciation as a result, and many 
timid people left the city. The 14th of April came, 
however, and nothing happened. 

San Francisco has been visited by destructive fires 
also, in the past. Three of them, in 1849, I ^5° an( 3 
1851, swept over a large part of the city, which then 
consisted almost wholly of frame buildings. 



CHAPTER XV 

IMMENSE FINANCIAL LOSSES 

Property Destroyed in San Francisco Alone Valued at 
$400,000,000 — Insurance Companies Liable for Over 
$100,000,000 — European Concerns are Hard Hit — 
Prompt Payment on Liberal Lines, Involving As- 
sessments on Stockholders — Property Damage in 
Other Cities Shaken by Earthquake Estimated at 
$12,000,000. 

The great earthquake and conflagration that wiped 
out San Francisco destroyed property in that city alone 
valued at $400,000,000. Big office buildings, mighty 
manufacturing plants, department stores, institutions 
of learning, churches, thousands of small shops and 
innumerable dwellings, with all their contents, went 
down in the general ruin. Nearly as serious as this 
concrete loss is that, impossible to estimate, due to the 
long interruption of practically all business enterprises, 
and the sudden cessation of rentals and earnings from 
labor. No value could be put on the art collections, 
libraries and similar accumulations that were de- 
stroyed. 

The property losses in other cities of California that 
suffered from the earthquake are estimated as follows : 

201 



202 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Damage. 

Oakland $ 500,000 

Alameda 400,000 

San Jose 3,000,000 

Agnew (state hospital for insane) 400,000 

Palo Alto (Stanford University) 4,000,000 

Napa 250,000 

Salinas 2,000,000 

Hollister 200,000 

Vallejo 40,000 

Sacramento 25,000 

Redwood City 30,000 

Suisun 50,000 

Santa Rosa 800,000 

Watsonville 70,000 

Monterey , 25,000 

Stockton 40,000 

Brawley 100,000 

Santa Cruz 150,000 

Fort Bragg 100,000 

The disaster precipitated an unparalleled crisis upon 
the fire insurance companies of the country, and they 
met it with wonderful courage and self-sacrifice. Suc- 
ceeding several months of unusually heavy losses, it 
presented a sight draft upon them for more than $100,- 
000,000 — for they were liable for that enormous sum. 
The response was prompt, and in some cases heroic. 
The companies announced that they would pay their 
obligations in full, though this in some instances would 
drain the resources that had been built up in scores 
of years, and in others would wipe out all accumula- 
tions and force stockholders to assess themselves, often 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 203 

to the full amount of their holdings. It meant sacri- 
fice and self-denial for hundreds of men, and perhaps 
the mortgaging of homes, to meet these unexpected 
demands. But they were met with courage and fidel- 
ity. 

The assurance that every loss would be paid was 
cheering news to the people of San Francisco who were 
yet retreating before the advancing flames when the 
welcome announcement was made. 

Never before were the companies called upon to pay 
so enormous an amount in so short a time, but they 
rose to the emergency. They ceased to be mere finan- 
cial machines, collecting premiums from the many to 
pay the loss of the few. They strove to relieve dis- 
tress as rapidly as possible at great cost to themselves. 
Under their contracts they had sixty days in which to 
settle, but every company started men and money hur- 
rying across the continent in a generous race to be the 
first to pay. They alone stood between thousands of 
persons and utter ruin. They knew it, and so they 
paid, and said no word of what it cost them. 

Many millions of money came from Great Britain 
and the European continent, for the San Francisco 
risks held by foreign companies were large and numer- 
ous. These concerns cabled at once to their American 
representatives to pay all losses by draft on the home 
offices in order to leave the funds in the United States 
intact. 

Californians themselves set a good example, for on 
the Saturday following the earthquake the San Fran- 
cisco company that was hardest hit sent out the cheer- 
ing word that its flag was nailed to the mast and that 



204 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

all losses would be paid in full. It was a certainty 
that these losses would be far more than the surplus 
— they might even exhaust the assets — but whatever 
they were, the Californians stood r ady to meet them. 
Another company, in Chicago, wa equally brave. It 
was only a year old and was just retting fairly started, 
when came the blow that would have been crushing 
to other than Chicago men. It started in at once to 
realize on its securities and pay its losses, and not a 
complaint was heard. 

Many of the San Francisco bankers exercised both 
heroism and ingenuity to save the funds of their depos- 
itors. Some of the bankers and their employes were 
content to shut up the books and see that all the secu- 
rities were in their deepest vaults. Others attempted to 
transport not only their books but also their coin. 

One characteristic experience of a banker in sav- 
ing all of the valuables of his house was that of 
William H. High, manager of the San Francisco branch 
of the International Banking Association, which has 
its headquarters at 60 Wall Street, New York. He 
was awakened by the earthquake in his home in Oak- 
land, and immediately hurried over to San Francisco 
to size up the situation. 

He was joined by all the other employes of the bank 
and, procuring a horse and wagon and with several 
soldiers as a guard, they removed $500,000 in gold to 
safe deposit vaults. 

Only one bank of all those in the city escaped de- 
struction, but their vaults preserved their treasure in 
most cases, and when the ruins cooled the gold and 
silver were found unharmed. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 205 

The United States mint was saved, as is told in an- 
other chapter, and the treasures of the government in 
the sub-treasury were preserved by the efforts of the 
head bookkeeper, J. M. McClure, though the building 
was burned to the ground. 

Secretary of the Treasury Shaw was prompt to take 
steps for the assistance of the financial institutions. 
He ordered that $15,000,000 be distributed among the 
national banks of San Francisco and vicinity as soon 
as security for the deposits was placed in the hands of 
the government officials at the sub-treasuries through- 
out the country. Securities owned by the California 
banks and on deposit in Chicago, New York, Boston, 
Philadelphia and elsewhere, were accepted up to 90 per 
cent of their value, and large transfers of cash were 
made. 

These measures made things comparatively easy for 
those who had savings and deposits in the bank vaults 
that could not be reached for some days, but many thou- 
sands of others whose entire possessions were repre- 
sented in little shops and household effects were left 
destitute. 

Many names famous the world over appear in the 
list of those who suffered the severest property losses. 
Some of the heaviest investments in San Francisco 
real estate were as follows: 

The James D. Phelan estate $15,000,000 

The William H. Crocker estate 12,000,000 

M. H. De Young 5,000,000 

The Spreckels estate 8,000,000 

Mrs. Herman Oelrichs 3,000,000 

Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt, Jr 4,000,000 



206 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

The Hearst estate $ 2,000,000 

D. O. Mills 8,000,000 

The Schloss estate 5,000,000 

Dr. Herbert Law and brother 5,000,000 

The Sharon estate 5,000,000 

The Lloyd Tevis estate 5,000,000 

Mrs. Eleanor Martin 1,500,000 

The Flood estate 7,000,000 

The Lunning estate 4,000,000 

Cunningham, Curtis and Welsh 3,000,000 

The A. P. Hotaling estate 5,000,000 

Many of the wealthy citizens and big financial in- 
stitutions of the city were heavily interested in the 
bonds of the Spring Valley Water Company, which 
supplied San Francisco with water. Something like 
$10,000,000 of the bonds are said to be held by finan- 
cial institutions alone. 




MONTGOMERY STREET. 

One of the principal business streets. You can see "Old Glory' 
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CHAPTER XVI 

THE RISE OF A NEW CITY 

Rebuilding of San Francisco Assured Before Its Ashes 
Are Cool — Indomitable Spirit of Pioneers Arises to 
Meet the Crisis — Quick Revival of Hope and Con- 
fidence — Reconstructed City Will Be Handsomer 
and Safer Than the Old — Architect Burnham's 
Plans for Magnificent Metropolis Adopted — Beauti- 
ful Boulevards and Parks. 

Long before the ashes of San Francisco had grown 
cool, its indomitable citizens, penniless, homeless, with- 
out food, drink or clothing, gave assurance to the 
world that their once proud city would be rebuilt. The 
sturdy spirit of the pioneers, that never balked at an 
obstacle, however insurmountable it might seem, was 
recalled to life. Hope and confidence revived in the 
hearts of those men who had just seen their entire for- 
tunes wiped out. They knew their ill-fated city could 
not be dead forever — they determined that it should 
not be. 

Plans for rebuilding the great commercial piles in 
the business district were being made almost before 
the conflagration had spent its force in the outskirts 
of the city. The task confronting the citizens was 
tremendous, but it did not appall them. 

That a people who have had such a terrible example 
of the dangerous character of the forces pent up under- 

209 



210 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

neath them should rebuild their homes and continue 
to live there seems at first glance inexplicable, yet it 
was beyond question that San Francisco would arise 
from its ruins, even as Chicago, Galveston and Balti- 
more have done. In part, of course, this is due to the 
fact that the commercial conditions and the fine har- 
bor facilities which established the city on its present 
site remain unchanged. It is splendidly situated to 
be the western seaport of the nation, and with the 
opening of the orient and the completion of the isth- 
mian canal its opportunities for further growth will 
be greatly increased. The " building boom " due to 
reconstructive work itself will tend to draw labor and 
capital to the place and cause great activity. 

In 1904 a number of enterprising citizens formed 
the Association for the Improvement and Adornment 
of San Francisco and requested Daniel H. Burnham, 
a distinguished architect of Chicago, to draw up plans 
for the beautifying of the city. Mr. Burnham gave 
more than a year to his task and then submitted a 
scheme that embodied the best lessons of man's ex- 
perience in both the art and science of city-making. 
These plans, which were accepted by Mayor Schmitz 
in September, 1905, now had a clear field, all existing 
obstacles having been swept away by the earthquake 
and fire. Built on such lines, the new San Francisco 
will rival Paris, Vienna and Berlin in beauty. 

In accordance with the Burnham plan, the boulevard 
system of Paris is taken as a general model, and the 
whole scheme was outlined as follows, a few days after 
the disaster: 

A great encircling boulevard, giving access to all 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 211 

centers of the city without the necessity of passing 
through the congested districts, is the main feature of 
the plan. San Francisco is built on a peninsula, with 
water on three sides. It is planned to make the en- 
girdling boulevard a broad, dignified, and continuous 
driveway, skirting the water's edge. 

Within this ring it is planned to have a number of 
smaller concentric rings, separated by boulevards. 
The smallest of these rings, inclosing the civic center 
— that part of the city which plays the most important 
part in civic life — is located at or near the geographical 
center. The shape of the rings necessarily must be 
so made as to conform to the shape of the city. 

From the inner circuit boulevard diagonal arteries 
are to be run to every section of the city and to the 
surrounding country. They are to traverse in suc- 
cession the diminishing circuit boulevards and finally 
reach the center or group of centers, thus forming con- 
tinuous streets reaching from one side of the city to 
the other. 

In a city as large as San Francisco no one central 
place will be adequate for the grouping of all the pub- 
lic buildings. Therefore it will be necessary to locate 
subcenters at intersections of the radial streets with 
the concentric boulevards. At each of these intersec- 
tions there will r^e a public " place." 

Once the western section of the city has been built 
up, the only opening for further development beyond 
the present boundaries will be toward the south. As 
far as land communication goes there are only three 
routes to the southern country and the circulation of 



212 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

supplies from the city to the suburbs and country be- 
yond. 

It is intended to make the proposed Mission Boule- 
vard and its continuation, the Camino Real, the back- 
bone of the system. It has been proposed to build it 
on dimensions corresponding to its future importance. 

The civic center is intended to be one of adminis- 
tration, amusement, and education of the finer order. 
With the subcenters, the distribution of groups of 
buildings will be as follows: 

The civic center is to contain the City Hall, Court 
of Justice, Custom House, Appraisers' Building, State 
Building, Government Building, and Postoffice. 

Plans have been made for another group of build- 
ings, public or private, of monumental character and 
of great civic interest relating to matters literary, mu- 
sical, expositional, professional, and religious. Some 
of these probably will be the Library, Opera House, 
Concert Hall, Municipal Theater, Academy of Art, 
Technical and Industrial School, Museum of Art, Mu- 
seum of Natural History, Academy of Music, Exhibi- 
tion Hall, and Assembly Hall. 

It has been planned that these buildings, placed in 
economic relation, shall face on the avenue forming 
the perimeter of distribution, and on the radial arte- 
ries within, particularly on public places formed by 
their intersection. The plans include extensive set- 
tings on all sides, contributing to public rest and recre- 
ation, and adapted to fetes, celebrations, etc. It has 
been considered that by being removed from the rush 
of business activity these buildings will gain in repose 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 213 

and strengthen the public's sensibility of the dignity 
and responsibility of citizenship. 

On the chief radial line to this place will be placed 
the Union Railway Station, forming a vestibule to the 
heart of the city. It is intended that theaters and 
other places of amusement shall be grouped on some 
one large street near the center, with plenty of room 
for vehicles coming and going. 

The water front and available level ground govern 
the location and growth of the working portion of a 
maritime city. The docks, wharves, and freight 
houses naturally group on the water front. 

The originators of the plan intend that the water 
front district shall be so arranged as to admit of in- 
definite expansion and connected with a complete sys- 
tem of warehouses — served on one hand by railroad 
tracks or canals and on the other by bro&d roadways. 
It is planned to have the warehouse system so schemed 
as to connect as directly as possible with the whole- 
sale trade districts and the manufacturing quarter. 
The retail quarter is to follow within easy reach. This 
district follows in general, in its growth, the residen- 
tial districts which it serves, limited by the steeper 
grades of the contours. 

Ten miles of water front possessed by San Fran- 
cisco, it is declared by architects, will be inadequate to 
the needs of the future. Although there is nothing 
to check its expansion down the eastern bay shore, the 
value of the frontage decreases in ratio to the distance 
of its removal from the center of the city. It is there- 
fore considered necessary to develop as much as pos- 
sible of the water front extending from the ferries to 



214 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Hunter's Point. A system of docks, inclosed by a 
sea wall, may be used to triple, or even quadruple the 
extent of wharfage. 

Where the outer boulevard follows the sea wall it 
will be necessary to connect it with that section of the 
city lying near it and inhabited by the middle classes. 

Where the streets from this section intersect the 
great boulevard, there probably will be piers for pub- 
lic recreation, a yacht and boat harbor, and vast bath- 
ing beaches, both inclosed and open air. The outer 
boulevard arranges for this without interfering with 
provisions made for shipping. 

Rapid underground transit and a traffic tunnel 
through Ashbury Heights are other features of the 
plan. It is proposed that the main diagonal arteries 
of the city shall be provided with underground trans- 
portation and that underground loops shall be exca- 
vated under the centers. The plan includes the con- 
struction of at least two underground roads at right 
angles. Where steep grades and contour roadways 
extending around hills are encountered it is suggested 
that the subway might be built as a gallery below the 
roadway, opening to the view, or the car line built on 
the slope slightly below the roadway. 

The financial center is to comprise banks, exchanges, 
insurance buildings, and general office structures. It 
is planned to have it easily accessible from the whole- 
sale and retail quarters and also from the adminis- 
trative center. It may be a financial forum, from the 
center of which it may be practicable to exclude ve- 
hicles. 

In the form of a court or series of courts it probably 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 215 

will be fronted with the most frequented and impor- 
tant institutions. The new city has been so planned 
as to make it one of the easiest cities in the world " to 
get around ir£" 

The park systems, the adornment of the streets by 
the planting of trees, the uniform height of buildings 
on specified streets, the putting up of statues and works 
of art in public places, the prevention of smoke, and 
the substitution of chains of park squares for unused 
back yards — all these things enter into the tentative 
plans that were made for the rebuilding of San Fran- 
cisco before anybody realized that it would be neces- 
sary to rebuild it. It was planned to make the park 
chains beautiful examples of the art of the landscape 
gardener where people might walk with comfort and 
where children could play free from danger of traffic. 

It has been suggested that cities like Colma, Ocean 
View, and Baden, which probably will become borough 
centers, reserve large commons on which the civic 
buildings may face. 

There are many steep hills in San Francisco. In 
some places the streets were laid out at right angles 
with apparent disregard for the configuration of the 
landscape. In the Burnham plan it is suggested that 
each hill, or succession of hills, be circumscribed at its 
base with a circuit road. These circuits are to be 
repeated at various heights and connected by easy in- 
clines. Places of interest are to be emphasized by 
terraces and approaches. 

It has been recommended that an art commission 
be given charge of all matters especially pertaining to 
civic art. Such a commission would have supervision 



216 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

over electric and gas lamps, post boxes, .fire alarm 
boxes, safety stations, street name plates, electric signs 
(none with intermittent lights to be tolerated), shop 
fronts, and signs and billboards. 

Mr. Burnham proposed that the water supply be ul- 
timately obtained from the Sierras, and that the reser- 
voirs should be so designed as to add to the beauty. 
By placing the reservoirs at successive heights the 
water could fall from one level to another, thus pre- 
senting a, series of waterfalls. 

The systematic work of clearing up the ruins was 
begun with vigor within a week after the earthquake. 
Even earlier, men were clambering about the masses 
of brick and steel where great structures had stood, 
planning and devising for rebuilding. Mayor Schmitz 
reflected the spirit of the people in a telegram he sent 
to President Roosevelt April 20, acknowledging the 
generosity of Congress in making an appropriation of 
$1,000,000 for the city's relief. He proclaimed to the 
world that the work of rebuilding would begin as soon 
as the fire ceased, and that the city would provide cap- 
ital for the reconstruction of its public buildings and 
its water system. He also expressed the hope that 
the government would provide ample appropriations 
for the rebuilding of the federal structures destroyed. 
That this hope was well founded was proved by the 
promises of high government officials and leaders in 
Congress. Indeed, Senator Scott of California al- 
ready had asked immediate consideration of a resolu- 
tion calling upon the Secretary of the Treasury to 
prepare an estimate of the cost of replacing the ruined 
federal buildings. Soon after a measure was intro- 




Copyright 1905 by H C. White & Co. 

CROCKER BUILDING— WRECKED BY EARTHQUAKE AND CON- 
SUMED BY FIRE. 




THE COURT AND PALM GARDENS— PALACE HOTEL. 

One of the points of interest in the Paris of America (San Francisco) was 
the famous Palm Gardens of the Palace Hotel. 




-46 ; 




o 

. m 

O ^ 

-J rcS 

£1 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 221 

duced in Congress providing that steel and other build- 
ing materials for San Francisco should be admitted 
to the country free of duty. 

Across the bay in Oakland public officials, represent- 
atives of large commercial enterprises, architects and 
construction companies opened offices where plans 
were made and thousands of men employed for the 
work of rebuilding. Mayor Schmitz sent out a gen- 
eral call over the country for architects and mechan- 
ical draughtsmen, and hundreds responded. 

Meanwhile the heads of railway and telegraph com- 
panies put forth mighty efforts to rehabilitate their 
lines in the shortest possible time. 

The great lesson of the earthquake was to build in 
steel, for the buildings of modern construction dem- 
onstrated their superiority over all others when the 
shock came. The only damage done to them, until 
the flames attacked them, was the falling of part of 
the walls that are built on to the steel work. 

Fears that there would be a great scarcity of steel 
for the rebuilding of San Francisco were allayed by 
assurances of experts to the contrary. On this topic 
the Iron Age said: 

" The San Francisco disaster has had a disturbing 
effect upon the broader minded leaders of the iron in- 
dustry who are concerned chiefly with its influence 
upon the general financial situation. 

" The splendid vindication of the modern steel cage 
construction is exceedingly gratifying, but some erron- 
eous and exaggerated statements have gained currency 
as to the tonnage of shapes which will be required at 
once. Data collected by the highest authority shows 



222 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

that up to date from the time of the fire Baltimore has 
used 30,000 tons of steel for the reconstruction of the 
burned area. 

" It always takes time to rebuild, and the somewhat 
hysterical fears that the mills of this country, busy 
as they are now, could not cover the demand are utterly 
unjustified. The quantity will not be large, relatively 
speaking, and the deliveries needed will be spread over 
so long a time that the work will make only a passing 
impression upon the structural mills. 

" Those who believe that the Pacific coast disaster 
will mean a boom to the steel industry are as much 
mistaken as are those who hold that our own works 
cannot take care of the business when offered." 

April 26, Richard Fairchild, staff correspondent of 
the Chicago Record-Herald, wrote as follows: 

" Confidence in San Francisco is unshaken. With 
the ruins of its great retail and wholesale buildings 
still smoking, plans are afoot for their reconstruction. 

" San Francisco rebuilt is to be a better, a safer and 
a more comfortable city for business and residential 
purposes than it was before. Capital in abundance 
to work the miracle is at hand. Chicago and New York 
financiers are ready with it. The Harrimans, the Still- 
mans, the Rockefellers and Morgans of the financial 
world are anxious to expedite the work. It is to their 
benefit to do so. 

" All signs conclusively prove that the credit of the 
Golden City is unimpaired. Its natural advantages 
remain, and its future promises to bring as bountiful 
prosperity as did its past. The trend is toward a mu- 
nicipality of steel and brick, of edifices constructed 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 223 

along the latest approved eastern lines. The new city 
will be far more substantial than the old — this is cer- 
tain. The dominant note here is optimism. 

" It has become obvious within the last few days that 
instead of shrinking, real estate values have risen rap- 
idly and will continue to rise. Fancy figures are being 
quoted on sites suitable for business establishments. 
Structures that remain comparatively intact and are 
not far from the old business section are being leased, 
room by room, at extremely high rates. Everyone 
seems feverishly anxious to outdo everyone else in 
reaching old customers first. 

" Instead of dooming San Francisco, the double at- 
tack of fire and quake will prove a blessing. Unac- 
countable as it may be to many people in eastern states, 
the denizens of this part of the country have no espe- 
cial fears of a recurrence of the recent catastrophe. 
They argue that seismic disturbances of such intensity 
come once in fifty or one hundred years. 

" ' Next time we will be prepared/ is the regulation 
comment. The faith of these people, their courage 
and their enduring hope have obliterated all doubt and 
crushed timidity. The watchword from the day of 
the disaster was * rebuild.' And generally there has 
been added the injunction, * and make it earthquake 
proof/ 

" The contracts to construct large buildings already 
have been let. All the old landmarks are to be replaced 
by even more attractive creations of the architect's 
skill. The question now agitating the minds of prop- 
erty owners concerns the type of buildings to be se- 
lected. 



224 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

" While flames did nine-tenths of the damage eight 
days ago, the titanic tremor leveled scores of great 
piles of brick and masonry. If these structures had 
been able to defy earthquake there would not have 
been much loss from fire. It was crossed wires, caused 
by crumbling walls, that converted the city into a fur- 
nace. 

" The tall structures fashioned in the modern way 
withstood the shock best. Buildings with brick walls 
tied to a steel frame seemed invulnerable. The local 
theory of building, by the same token, was demon- 
strated deficient. Walls that were not securely at- 
tached to their frames fell out or crumbled into heaps. 
The Claus Spreckels Building, in which the San Fran- 
cisco Call was published, is intact. It was built after 
the plan of the First National Bank Building in Chi- 
cago or the Flatiron in New York. Its neighbors, 
constructed by the San Francisco method, are on the 
ground. Many foundations were too light. Some 
were nothing more than piles driven into the ground. 
In the new San Francisco considerable attention is to 
be paid to sub-construction work. 

" This is regarded as highly important, as the sec- 
tion west of Montgomery and First Streets is made 
land. Not many years ago the waters of the bay cov- 
ered it. In company with a competent consulting en- 
gineer I made the rounds of the down-town district 
to-day and, according to my guide, the New York and 
Chicago methods of skyscraper construction have been 
fully vindicated by conditions here. 

" Before the earthquake the district south of Mar- 
ket Street, especially toward the water front, was given 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 225 

over to frame tenements of the cheapest class, and for 
years had been inaccessible on that account to whole- 
sale houses and factories, for which it was a natural lo- 
cation. There is supposed to be little doubt that the 
fire limits will be extended and that nothing but build- 
ings of high character can be erected in this district, 
thereby not only insuring the city against danger of 
another holocaust, but opening a greatly needed whole- 
sale and manufacturing section. 

" The San Francisco Real Estate Exchange fully 
realizes the importance of this change, and steps al- 
ready have been taken toward establishing new fire 
lines. 

" The interest being taken in the reconstruction of 
the city is evident on every hand. The newspapers 
are filled with advertisements of railroads and con- 
tractors offering advice and aid — incidentally bids for 
business — to firms that expect to rebuild. One of the 
contracting firms advertised in a local paper as fol- 
lows to-day: 

" ' Personal examination has fortified our unshaken 
confidence in the stability of the best type of class A 
construction, and when capitalists have confirmed this 
conclusion from reports of their own experts we ex- 
pect that the business district of San Francisco will 
be rebuilt with speed. 

" ' If it is correct that earthquake conditions can be 
provided for safely in tall buildings, then our first- 
class fire risks will be practically eliminated, since all 
business will be only one type and no one will have 
an adjacent exposure/ 

" In ordinary English, then, the big contractors, who 



£26 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

know whereof they speak, look for the rebuilt city to 
be almost a fac simile of Chicago within the loop, or 
New York in the vicinity of Twenty-third and Broad- 
way." > 

Before the ruins of the city were cold the leading 
minds of San Francisco were busy with plans to get 
sufficient money at once to rebuild the city as a whole. 
If this could be done the experiment of laying out a 
metropolis from one architectural plan, as single build- 
ings are laid out, could be tried. The experiment had 
a fascination from the supreme difficulties that pre- 
sented themselves. The scheme, if successful, would 
give San Francisco a prestige not enjoyed by any other 
city in the world. 

Herbert Law, a San Francisco capitalist, was among 
the first to advocate this plan. He was possessed of 
the idea and succeeded in enlisting others in the at- 
tempt. The result was that on April 26th, one week 
after the earthquake, he was on his way to Washing- 
ton to ask Congress to appropriate $100,000,000 to re- 
build San Francisco. The money was to be loaned on 
real estate security for twenty-five years at 2 per cent 
per annum. The project met with favor from the 
President and a bill was prepared looking to the con- 
summation of this colossal government loan. 

Meanwhile individual property owners went to work 
to rebuild their property. The first building permit 
applied for and granted was for a twelve-story steel 
structure, to be erected by Thomas McGee, a substan- 
tial business man. Work on the great Fairmount 
Hotel, at California and Powell Streets, was resumed,. 
The building was in course of construction at the time 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 227 

of the disaster and would have been completed by No- 
vember ist. Only the woodwork was destroyed, the 
walls remaining in good shape. 

Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs of New York began at once 
to repair the Rialto Building and to build again on the 
site of the Crossley. She and her sister, Mrs. W. K. 
Vanderbilt, Jr., also commenced to plan the construc- 
tion of modern office buildings on their Montgomery 
Street site. 

The Emporium, a large department store, resumed 
business on a large scale in a temporary structure at 
the corner of Post and Van Ness Avenue. 

In two weeks seven floors of the new Monadnock 
Building which was in course of construction at the 
time of the disaster were filled with offices. 

" Capitalists are not in the least dismayed or dis- 
heartened," said James D. Phelan, chairman of the 
finance committee, and multi-millionaire. " Before the 
earthquake I was asked by certain capitalists to erect 
a large hotel on the site of the Phelan Building at Mar- 
ket and O'Farrell Streets. Since the disaster the 
proposition has been repeated and even urged. This 
shows most decidedly that there is no lack of faith in 
the future of the city." 

Talk was all of the greater plans for rebuilding the 
city. Whether the Burnham plans were accepted or 
not, the junction of Hayes, Market and Eighth Streets, 
and Van Ness Avenue, where stand the ruins of the 
City Hall, was to be made the civic center of the town, 
the place of the public buildings. 

The expensive steel structure buildings on Market 
Street which stood the fire would not have to be re- 



228 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

built. Other streets of the downtown district which 
were laid out in the early days and which are far too 
narrow for a modern city were to be widened by shav- 
ing off several feet from the property on either side. 

The Burnham plans, if adopted, would change the 
course of a great many street, and it was felt that Mr. 
Burnham would have to cut his coat to fit his cloth; 
for in the present state of affairs it would be a great 
hardship to tear down and move buildings which 
escaped the fire. Mr. Burnham's pride was the ter- 
racing of the western addition; but the western addi- 
tion stood untouched. 

With wonderful pluck, the big newspapers of San 
Francisco refused to suspend publication, though 
burned out of house and home on the first day. The 
day after the earthquake the Call, the Examiner and 
the Chronicle forces combined to issue a small sheet, 
much like a handbill, from an Oakland newspaper of- 
fice. By the next day each had obtained facilities for 
publication in Oakland, the forces separated again and 
the papers were issued thenceforth without interrup- 
tion. One evening paper suspended publication for a 
week. Prompt steps were taken by the proprietors 
of these journals to erect new buildings, install new 
plants and resume the issuance of their papers in San 
Francisco. 

The way in which shattered, scorched San Fran- 
cisco shook off her ashes and debris and set about the 
mighty task of building a new city, greater and grander 
than the old, was a most inspiring example of Amer- 
ican pluck and courage. 




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FOUR FINE BUILDINGS WRECKED. 

The Chronicle and Examiner Newspaper Buildings, the Hall of Justice and the 

Mills Building. 



CHAPTER XVII 

GREAT THEATRICAL BENEFITS 

Unparalleled Performance Given in the Bernhardt 
Tent in Chicago — Mighty Concourse of Stage Stars, 
including Bernhardt, Willard, Sothern and Julia 
Marlowe — Thousands under Canvas — Actors' Fund 
Benefit Given for San Francisco Sufferers — Count- 
less Performances all Over the Country Swell the 
Monster Relief Fund. 

Unparalleled catastrophes must be met by un- 
equaled measures of relief. When the news of San 
Francisco's awful disaster reached the world, it re- 
mained for Chicago and the actors and stage man- 
agers there to arrange and give the most stupendous 
theatrical benefit performance ever known. The plan 
was first suggested by Andrew M. Lawrence, publisher 
of the Chicago Examiner and chairman of the Chi- 
cago general relief committee, and was taken up with 
the utmost enthusiasm. 

Mme. Sarah Bernhardt offered the use of the great 
tent in which she had appeared in Texas, and prom- 
ised to go on the programme. It was decided to give 
the show Thursday afternoon, April 26, on the Lake 
Front and the Illinois Legislature and South Park 
Board of Chicago promptly adopted measures allow- 
ing the use of that park. 

231 



232 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Hundreds of offers were made to contribute to the 
support of the undertaking. 

The Chicago Federation of Musicians, through its 
executive officers and President Winkler, offered the 
services of a brass band of 500 musicians. Arrange- 
ments were completed to make this one of the great 
features of the monster performance. 

Charles Frohman cabled from London his permis- 
sion for E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe to appear 
in the tent, and every theatrical manager in the city 
offered the attraction then in his house. Richard 
Carle and " The Mayor of Tokio " company agreed to 
come from South Bend, Ind., and assist. 

W. F. Connor, manager for Mme. Bernhardt, was 
made the general director. 

George W. Lederer, manager of the Colonial The- 
ater, was chosen to act as stage manager of the per- 
formance. Mr. Lederer is one of the greatest stage 
managers in the business and the performance was 
then assured of being properly balanced and well con- 
ducted. 

Sam P. Gerson, manager of the Garrick Theater, 
was chosen as treasurer of the fund, and orders for 
seats began immediately to pour in. 

George S. Wood of the Colonial Theater volun- 
teered to handle the publicity department, and within 
twelve hours the entire city was informed of the bene- 
fit performance. 

A. Jacobs, manager of the Olympic, was made house 
manager, and C. E. Kohl director. 

Head Usher Cook of the Garrick Theater managed 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 233 

the corps of volunteer ushers from the play houses in 
the city. 

Much credit is due to the Chicago & Alton Railroad 
which, through General Passenger Agent George 
Charlton and City Passenger Agent H. H. Hilbourne, 
arranged to bring the Bernhardt tent from Dallas, 
Texas, free of charge. The railroad also contributed 
$500 toward the souvenir programme and donated spe- 
cial trains to bring Mme. Bernhardt from Indianapolis 
and take her thence to Peoria. 

The souvenir programme was put in the hands of 
the Ben Leven Advertising Agency. Fifteen business 
men volunteered their services in obtaining advertise- 
ments and the allotted space was filled in a short time. 

Stage hands, bill posters and house attaches assisted 
in the good cause and the tickets and advertising litho- 
graphs were never more quickly printed and placed in 
the proper hands. 

The Chicago Edison Company furnished free of all 
charge all the lighting that was necessary in connec- 
tion with this benefit. 

The Theatrical Stage Employes' International Al- 
liance, through Lee Hart, President of Local No. 2, 
gave the services free of charge of all the electricians, 
stage hands, carpenters and other assistants needed to 
run the stage. 

The John Gillespie Lumber Company gave free all 
the lumber that was needed in properly arranging the 
tent and further saw that it was properly hauled and 
cut into proper sizes. 

The United States Tent and Awning Company gave 
free all the extra tent seats and lights and everything 



234 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

else they had in their Chicago, St. Louis or Sioux City 
storehouses which could in any way be of assistance in 
assuring the comfort of the patrons at the tent bene- 
fit. 

Every piece of advertising put out was contributed 
by the Winterburn Show Printing Company, the Na- 
tional Printing and Engraving Company and the Cen- 
tral Printing and Engraving Company. 

It was posted free by the American Bill Posting 
Company, whose force was superintended by J. T. Mc- 
Arty, chief advertising agent of the Garrick Theater. 

He and A. L. Lamphear, the master carpenter, and 
T. J. Cleland, of that theater, volunteered their serv- 
ices and enlisted a large number of employes of other 
theaters to help them. 

For days the newspapers of Chicago carried free 
large advertisements of the benefit. 

The big Bernhardt tent itself proved to be one of 
the best features of the show. It seats 6,500 persons. 
As soon as the Alton Railway had brought it from 
Texas, Ben Rosenthal, assisted by a gang of canvas 
men whose services for two days were donated by 
Ringling Brothers, erected it on the Lake Front oppo- 
site the Auditorium Hotel. The Knickerbocker Ice 
Company furnished two new wagons that were used 
as ticket offices and the Postal Telegraph Company 
established a telegraph office in the tent. 

The sale of flowers, programmes, candies and photo- 
graphs was put in charge of Miss Helen F. Hahn, who 
was assisted by more than fifty prominent young 
women of the stage and of Chicago society. 

At 10:30 o'clock on the day of the benefit the band 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 235 

of 500 pieces began a concert on the Lake Front that 
lasted until noon. Meanwhile the tent filled rapidly. 

Could the people of San Francisco have seen Lake 
Front Park at noon they would have understood some- 
thing of the real sympathy that was felt for them in 
Chicago. 

What a glorious picture it was. Buildings, viaduct, 
boulevard and park a mass of humanity, quiet and sym- 
pathetic. There was not an ill-natured person among 
all those thousands. It was more like a religious serv- 
ice than an amusement. One great family gathered to 
assist and comfort and soothe a wounded member of 
the household could not have been more universal in 
their feelings and deportment. 

The great heart of nature stirred in every breast 
when the magnificent band of hundreds of instruments 
burst forth in " The Marsellaise " as the President of 
the United States, away off in Washington, touched 
the button that unfurled the colors of France and 
America above the tent, and Mme. Bernhardt appeared 
upon the stage to voice her sympathy and love. There 
was no individual any longer in all that packed assem- 
bly. They were all one in the thought of doing good. 

Nature rejoiced with the people. The sun shone 
bright and clear. The breeze was gentle. Beyond 
the park, Lake Michigan rippled and smiled its ap- 
proval of the generous demonstration. The vehicles 
that usually spin along the boulevard, their occupants 
self-engrossed with their own thoughts, went softly, 
quietly on that day. The tooting horns of the automo- 
biles were still. Even the high-stepping horses seemed 



236 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

to feel the spirit of gentleness and put down their steel- 
shod feet with an unusual lightness. 

And the large sum realized from the sale of tickets 
and programmes was not to be compared to the sum 
that would follow it because of the day's grateful ac- 
tion. Not one of all those thousands that stood for 
hours without the tent, feeling the effect of that grate- 
ful spirit born of the hour, but must have been inspired 
to greater acts of charity than he had before dreamed 
of. 

Harmony — that is the word. The actors on the 
stage felt it. The people packed within the great tent 
felt it. The many times greater crowd outside that 
applauded the faintest note of speech or song that 
came to it felt it. The people crowding the windows 
and doorways along the thoroughfare felt it. The 
people on the roofs of the Auditorium and other near- 
by buildings felt it. It was an hour of unison. 

The cause was worthy of the idea, and the unanim- 
ity with which the artists, managers and generous- 
hearted men and women gave their whole soul to the 
enterprise was an earnest of its success. But even the 
most enthusiastic of its promoters could not have 
dreamed of the triumph it proved to be. 

When E. S. Willard, like an enthused lion, recited 
those magnificent lines of Tennyson, " The Light Bri- 
gade,'' his whole soul seemed to be in the lines. It 
was the spirit of the hour he was voicing. It was 
the expression of the hardly recognized understand- 
ing of the audience that as this great enterprise had 
succeeded so would that greater one of rebuilding San 
Francisco succeed. Not because of its own strength, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 237 

but because the strength of the heartbeats of the whole 
country was with it, and seconding it, and will be until 
it again stands a beautiful city. 

The Bernhardt tent had seen a glorious triumph. 
It had accomplished a noble work. Henceforth its 
name will be an inspiration toward everything that is 
high and pure and tender and true. 

Just as the clocks struck 12 President Roosevelt, 
sitting at his desk in the White House, touched a tele- 
graph key and started a great electric gong ringing in 
the tent. At the same instant a cannon boomed out- 
side and the monster benefit was opened. 

Mr. Lederer then read this message from the Presi- 
dent: 

" I send greetings to the managers and best wishes 
for the success of the benefit performance for the re- 
lief of the San Francisco sufferers. 

" THEODORE ROOSEVELT." 

Meanwhile Mme. Bernhardt had entered the tent 
and as she appeared on the stage the vast audience 
arose and cheered for several minutes. 

Bernhardt recited a poem by Victor Hugo and then 
addressed the audience in French as follows: 

" The calamity which has struck San Francisco has 
had an echo in the hearts of the people of the entire 
world. But those who, like myself, have had the joy 
of visiting that admirable city have the feeling of a yet 
deeper sorrow. Nevertheless, as evil brings with it- 
self some good, I, who know the great American na- 
tion, think that like the phoenix, San Francisco will 



238 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

rise again from the ashes greater, more beautiful and 
stronger against the furore of the elements. 

" The public of Chicago, to whom I owe so much 
happiness and to whom I am so much indebted, has 
once more proved its kindness to me by coming under 
my tent to bring its share of offerings, thus allowing 
me to take a very small part in that brotherly impulse 
of the United States toward her unfortunate sister. ,, 

Then followed, rapidly and smoothly, the other num- 
bers on the long programme. Cecil Lean and Flor- 
ence Holbrook with the La Salle Theater Chorus sang 
some songs; Robert Hunter's Company from the Grand 
Opera House gave an act from "Before and After "; 
Elizabeth Wall sang " Chicago Says I Will " ; Rich- 
ard Carle and Adele Rowland gave a selection from 
"The Mayor of Tokio"; Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Water- 
ous sang several selections; the first act of "Mrs. 
Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," from McVicker's Thea- 
ter, was given; Buster Brown and his dog Tige ap- 
peared from the Great Northern Theater, and then E. 
H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe, playing at the Illinois, 
gave the second act from " The Taming of the Shrew/' 
to be followed by Trixie Friganza, from the Chicago 
Opera House, in songs. Then E. S. Willard, playing 
at the Colonial, appeared and stirred the audience by 
his spirited delivery of " The Charge of the Light Bri- 
gade." He was succeeded by La Petite Adelaide, the 
little dancer of the " Three Graces " Company, and 
next T. A. O'Shaughnessy, artist, made some rapid 
sketches. Robert Loraine and his company and auto- 
mobile, from Powers' Theater played one act from 
" Man and Superman," and then Adelaide Keim of the 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 239 

Bush Temple made' a brief appearance. Louis Harri- 
son of " Mexicana," from the Garrick Theater sang 
several songs and " The College Widow " Company 
from the Studebaker appeared for one act. The pro- 
gramme ended with a solo by Miss Caro Roma of the 
" Mexicana " Company. The numbers had been in- 
terspersed with music by an excellent orchestra, one 
of the selections being " The Yankee Hustler," a march 
composed by Mayor Schmitz of San Francisco. 

The audience dispersed slowly and bought count- 
less souvenirs. One man paid $61 for a box of cigars, 
another $18 for four boxes of cracker-jack. A third 
paid $105 for a table cover donated by Mabel Barrison 
and bearing the autographs of all who had appeared 
on the stage. Chorus girls invaded the Michigan 
Boulevard hotels and State Street department stores 
and soon disposed of the rest of their programmes and 
photographs. 

The total receipts from the benefit, all of which went 
to the relief fund, were $15,605. 

After the performance, E. S. Willard said : " I ac- 
claim the benefit performance the greatest bill I have 
ever been associated with. Chicago has established a 
new mark in philanthropy. I shall always remember 
this marvelous entertainment. " 

" I have been in benefits held in London, Paris and 
New York," said George W. Lederer, " but never have 
I witnessed one on a parity with that held on the Lake 
Front. Never before in my long theatrical career have 
I seen so successful an entertainment." 

Mme. Bernhardt, weeping as she was driven hur- 
riedly to a railway station, was too much overcome by 



240 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

emotion to do more than offer to remain in Chicago 
yet longer if by so doing she could give further aid 
to the grand cause. 

But the theatrical people of and in Chicago had not 
yet done enough for the cause of charity. The an- 
nual actors' fund benefit had been set for Friday after- 
noon, April 27th, in the Auditorium, and no sooner 
had the news of the California disaster been flashed 
over the wires than it was announced that the total re- 
ceipts from this performance would be added to the 
fund for the San Francisco sufferers. The great thea- 
ter was filled to its limit and the Theater Managers' 
Association provided a wonderful bill. It included E. 
S. Willard, E. H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe, Robert 
Loraine and Company, the " Before and After " Com- 
pany, the " College Widow " Company, " Mexicana," 
" Mrs. Wiggs," " The Three Graces," " Buster Brown/' 
" The Umpire," Adelaide Keim and Bush Temple play- 
ers, the People's Stock Company and headliners from 
the Majestic, Olympic and Haymarket theaters. The 
orchestra, donated by the Chicago Federation of Mu- 
sicians, was directed by F. Timponi. 

Sunday, April 29th, the Thomas orchestra and 
Dwight Elmendorf combined to do their part by giv- 
ing an entertainment in Orchestra Hall. A concert 
by the orchestra was followed by an illustrated travel- 
talk on San Francisco by Mr. Elmendorf. The sum 
of $1,289 was realized. 

A few days later the Apollo Musical Club and the 
Thomas orchestra joined in a performance of Haydn's 
" The Creation," for the benefit of the relief fund. 

For fear some willing to contribute should be over- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 241 

looked, Mayor Dunne of Chicago proclaimed Satur- 
day, April 28th, " San Francisco Day " and ordered 
every policeman in the city to make a house to house 
canvass of his beat. Coupon receipts were given for 
sums ranging from 25 cents to $5 and when the re- 
turns were all in it was found that nearly $35,000 had 
been collected in this way. There were many pathetic 
instances of poor women giving the last bit of coin in 
the house and little children gladly contributing their 
mites. Indeed the children of the whole country gave 
a touching example of generosity, turning into the re- 
lief funds their pennies and nickels always with ex- 
pressions of regret that they had not more to give. 

In the way of theatrical benefits New York came to 
the front Sunday night, April 29th, with a most ex- 
traordinary performance in the Hippodrome. This 
immense amphitheatre was filled to the doors with peo- 
ple of wealth and fashion, Victor Herbert led an or- 
chestra of 350 pieces, and on the stage appeared Mme. 
Schumann-Heink, Eugene Cowles, Miss Blanche Duf- 
field and a grand chorus of 500 voices from the Fritzi 
Scheff Opera Company, the Free Lance Opera Com- 
pany and the Hippodrome Company, besides a dozen 
noted vaudeville artists. As everything was contrib- 
uted free, the relief fund was greatly swelled by the 
receipts. 

While Chicago and New York gave the biggest bene- 
fit entertainments, others were given in nearly every 
city, town and village in all the broad land. There 
were base ball games, athletic contests, billiard tourn- 
aments, concerts, lectures and amateur entertainments 
without number. And the receipts from all of them 



242 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

went to swell the mighty flood of gold that poured 
steadily westward to the ruined city of the Golden 
Gate. 

On Sunday, April 30, most of the churches in the 
United States gave the whole of their loose collection 
to San Francisco. The sum thus raised was a gen- 
erous one. Most of it was sent direct from the churches 
to their sister denominations so that a total of the re- 
ceipts could not be estimated. 

It was not charity but brotherly aid that poured into 
the distressed city of San Francisco such a stream of 
wealth and supplies. And America will ever be the 
better for this noble sacrifice. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

WHAT 'FRISCO HAS LOST 

It Was a Group of Individuals But a Single Soul — 
Its Early Lack of Books Inspired a New Literature 
— Some Characteristics of the Old San Francisco — 
An Englishman's Experience With John Phoenix, 
the First American Humorist to Gain Fame — San 
Francisco Compared to Chicago— It Was a Forest 
of Arden That Must Now Become a Steel Metrop- 
olis. 

Think of all the forms, the peculiar combinations, 
the meeting, the mingling, the sifting of the myriad 
trails, down the arteries and along the nerves of time 
— culminating in the individual. Think of these forms, 
multiplied a million fold, the culmination a physical, 
geographical temperament, a character built upon the 
ground, a thousand gables but one atmosphere, a civic 
individual — a city soul. Cities are as whimsical as the 
children of men, governed by that same chance-law 
that gives to men their humors. A city built by de- 
sign is almost as characterless and quite as careless as 
a language fashioned by a scholar in his library. 
Philadelphia is an old town but it has not " recovered " 
from the deadening regularity given to it by William 
Penn. The most interesting and the most picturesque 
of all thoroughfares was first marked out by the wild 
beast. 

243 



244 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Europeans have accused American cities of a lack 
of individuality, but no world man ever charged San 
Francisco with a want of distinctiveness. It was laid 
out by those children of Chance, the miner, the poet 
and the grizzly bear. The tongue of land upon which 
it was built was a tongue speaking the languages of 
all nations. It was a town in which at first every 
man, American, European, Oriental, was a foreigner, 
and the way to bring men in close harmony is first to 
make them strangers. Semi-acquaintance establishes 
no close relationship — it nods, passes the polite time 
of day and moves on. Men from great distances be- 
came brothers. Therefore, San Francisco, a city of 
strangers, at an early day became a city of brothers. 
The common interest of commerce alone could not 
have brought this about; there was needed a touch of 
art, of literature — of poetry. It was the only city in 
America and one of the few of the world whose rude 
cradle was rocked by the muses. In the outfit of the 
forty-niner there were no books. And what did this 
mean ; the birth of a new literature. The press of the 
east, with its temples throbbing from a night of de- 
bauch, could not spew out upon this distant place. 
And so, in this town there was nothing to read. Good. 
In that dearth of stale, academic print there lay the 
germ of a new page of letters, a beautiful bronze page, 
and upon it was the glow of a sunset that made a 
liquor-gold of that almost boundless brine which 
" stout Cortez " viewed and was " silent on a peak in 
Darien." Ah, trade alone not more makes a city great 
than flesh with nettle-rash makes a man a character. 
In early San Francisco men wrote in order that they 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 245 

might read. They wrote for themselves, and the man 
who writes not for the public but for himself writes 
for all humanity. The only reward of real literature 
is the thrill of production. The materialist may say 
that this was merely an accident, and that at best but 
a small factor in the formation of San Francisco. But 
the psychologist will tell you that it gave the rich color 
to that wondrous civic painting which yesterday was 
shaken out of its golden frame and consumed by fire. 
It was the hand, which, striking hard with the pick, 
had touched delicately with the pen. It was the at- 
mosphere that had come out of art, the dreamy vapor 
arising from the pool of sentiment. The surveyor 
came out, the town grew to prolific measure. It had 
its great pentameter thoroughfare and its little rhym- 
ing byways, its idyllic nooks, its vilanelle corners, its 
iragic cellars. And those must now live as they were 
born — in literature. They can never be reproduced. 
Every physical shape might be enacted by the archi- 
tect, and yet the spirit would be different. The old 
soul was shaken out upon the air and has flown away. 
As a commercial aspect the new city may be more mag- 
nificent — it will be; there will be more steel, more win- 
dows, and, therefore, a greater glare of light, the dis- 
peller of soft, dreamy mystery. Calamity's advertise- 
ment will increase the volume of her trade and Dun's 
book will give to her a higher rating, but the world 
wanderer who returns to her will look in sadness upon 
her new magnificence. Here was born a true Bo- 
hemia. It was not the drunken, glutton bout, the hot 
hand, the swollen eye — the inebriate's pretense of a 
love of art; it was art at' ease, singing because its 



246 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

heart was light. The lonely Parisian, banishe i 
the newness of America, came thither and found h i 
self at home. The Londoner, holding in contempt all 
towns save his own, lived in 'Frisco for a day, and 
muttered his astonishment. And the Broadway man, 
with his professional narrowness, bowed to the charm 
that came stealing through the Golden Gate. Can 
you infuse such a spirit into a great skeleton of steel? 
It was not age alone that gave to San Francisco a 
strange, a subtle, a spiritual grace. Age; men are 
living who saw its birth, its growth — its death. It 
was the youngest of all the world cities, and yet in a 
way it was as old as Paris, as Athens. It seemed to 
have been born with poetic traditions. We may have 
seen its red shirt, but its wash tub was hidden. In 
the early day all California was a fairy land and San 
Francisco was its capital. And in this rich glow of 
gold and of sunset, a new spirit of mirth was born. 
Hither wandered a steamboat man and became the 
world's greatest humorist. And here, a meditative 
failure in the East wrote short stories that made his 
name familiar to all tongues. Here is an extract from 
a letter written in the fifties by an Englishman: "It 
was evening when I arrived in this strange town of 
San Francisco. I was alone when I arrived, but not 
for more than a few moments afterward. As soon 
as I had alighted from the stage coach a man came 
forward and said that as I looked lonesome he would 
tell me his real name if I wouldn't say anything about 
it. I was lonesome but I couldn't see what his real 
name might have to do with relieving the situation; 
and I so expressed myself to him, and he smiled sadly 




A JOSS HOUSE— CHINATOWN. 

No portion of the ill-fated City of San Francisco was so well known to 
travelers as the section known as Chinatown. The estimated number of 
Chinamen in this district before the fire was 45,000. 




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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 249 

and said that he didn't either, but that being an ad- 
venturous cuss he had fancied that it might do some 
good. He said that he was an undertaker and had 
come out from Boston on the promise of the mayor of 
San Francisco, who had assured him that business 
would be good. ' I told him/ said he, * that the cli- 
mate didn't seem flattering to an undertaker, and he 
said that the climate hadn't anything to do with it. 
Then he said that if I would agree to give him a rake 
off he would go out and stir up something.' " This 
man was exceedingly friendly, the writer continues, 
" and invited me to go to a ball with him that night. 
As there wasn't anything else to do, and especially 
as he seemed hurt when he saw that I was about to 
refuse, I consented to go. I can't say that the ball 
was a brilliant affair. The only lights were known 
as tallow dips. The floor was uneven. And I had 
no notion of attempting to dance; indeed, I had never 
danced even in England. Suddenly my melancholy 
friend came to me looking sadder than ever, and said 
that he had a most opportune piece of news to offer, 
I inquired 'the nature of it and especially as to why it 
was opportune, and pointing to an enormous fellow 
in a red shirt, and weighted down with pistols, he said: 
' That's Bleer-Eyed Pete.' I told him I supposed it 
was, but what of it? He said that there was a great 
deal of it — that Pete had just sworn vengeance 
against me. I was at a loss as to why, but w r as soon 
enlightened. He said that I had insulted Bleer-Eyed 
Pete's sister. In astonishment I demanded to know 
how, and he said that I had not asked her to dance 
with me. ' And that is a deadly insult,' said he, ' still 



250 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

there is time for reparation. He won't begin shoot- 
ing before the next set. That's his sister standing 
over there against the wall. She isn't handsome, as 
you may discover, but still it may be better to dance 
with her than to die; and I say this against my in- 
terest, for I have just been elected city undertaker by 
a soothing majority. Go and ask her to dance with 
you.' By jove, I didn't want to die. I had prospects 
in England; so I went over to her and asked her to 
dance. She did, and we cut but a sorry figure, as I 
didn't know a thing about it; and the people all 
laughed, Bleer-Eyed Pete louder than the rest, which 
was most encouraging, as it assured me that I had 
been forgiven. I had no opportunity to talk to him. 
As he had more pistols than any one else he was most 
popular with the women. After the dance was over 
and when we had returned to the tavern, my melan- 
choly friend congratulated me, saying that she would 
make me a good wife as she had buried three hus- 
bands and knew how to handle them. And you may 
be assured that my mouth was now wide open in as- 
tonishment. 'Why,' he said, 'she has- told her 
brother that you have asked her to marry you. - And 
now, sir, if you should shrewdly discover that she has 
lied, don't say anything about it, but quietly marry 
her to keep down trouble.' This was too much; and 
I was preparing to steal away from the town when 
I chanced to meet the mayor. I told him my trouble 
and he almost burst with laughter. My melancholy 
friend was John Phoenix, a celebrated American 
humorist." 

The town was riotous with the spirit of levity. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 25l 

Here dull men became enlivened with a new, a droll 
humor, a drawn-out wit. As the place became more 
civilized, as- finally the old poets came in ships to 
mingle with the new, the rough life toned and soft- 
ened; but it never became dull — never conventional. 
A great university did not swing it into the world's 
rhythm of the learned commonplace. San Francisco 
accepted culture and strengthened it with originality. 

Boston lost its old literary flavor. In its atmos- 
phere bloomed America's most fragrant flower — 
Emerson; but in the later day Harvard began to turn 
out critics rather than inventors. Old literary New 
York was abolished by the spirit of the gambling 
house of Wall street. Along Broadway there used 
to muse the poet — virile — where now there hastens 
the lean youth dramatist whose cuffs rattle on his 
thin wrists. Society had not made a boudoir of the 
magazine. Old Bonner printed trash, but he printed 
literature, too — a serial story by Dickens, a novel by 
Beecher; in the cellars where the toilers wrought there 
was more of impulse than technique and more of 
necessity than of either. But out of impulse there 
may come a Child Harold and out of necessity there 
did come a Rasselas. And out of technique there 
has come more technique. Some of this old spirit of 
New York found its way to San Francisco, and back 
to New York it sent its greeting and enriched her pub- 
lications. 

Chicago from the very start was chiefly — buy and 
sell. Commerce has ever regarded poetry as belong- 
ing to a bygone age. Chicago's aim was to build 
fast. By the fire she lost nothing. Her spirit was 



252 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the spirit of material progress, and that spirit was 
augmented. Out of the ashes it arose new, just as 
the material part of San Francisco will arise. Not in 
all Chicago was there a literary landmark. Those of 
her children who had the poetic instinct were always 
aliens. An older town than San Francisco, and yet 
the newest town in the world; and it might be burned 
a thousand times and arise better for each fierv bath. 
In Chicago insurance could cover everything. 

Baltimore congratulates itself upon its new mag- 
nificence. About the old town there was no art, no 
literary distinction. Poe lived there, but the " re- 
spectable " citizens deplored that fact. In that atmos- 
phere he could not do his best work, and it was in 
Washington that he wrote The Raven. 

Yes, they will rebuild 'Frisco, and according to 
plans it will be a beautiful city — like a park; but was 
there ever a park that could be compared with the 
forest of Arden? The streets will be regular and there 
will be fountains — Cupid will hold aloft a fish to let it 
squirt water out of its mouth; and about the foun- 
tain there will be music, the new symphony of science 
and not the old melody of the heart. San Francisco 
dreamed a beautiful dream and awoke with a shock, 
amid fire and smoke. It cannot dream again. In 
material beauty it will surpass anything on this con- 
tinent, in the world, perhaps, but it will be an adopted 
child. 






CHAPTER X I X 

EARLY HISTORY OF SAN FRANCISCO 

First Settlement by Spanish Missionaries in the Year 
1776 — A Mission of Mercy — The Early Days of '49 
— Growth and Development of the Golden Gate — 
Literature and Art — Oriental Trade — Wonderful De- 
velopment of Industries — Agricultural Period — 
Great Fruit Growing — Pre-eminent for Its Wines. 

In that memorable year of 1776, when the hardy pio- 
neers of the American colonies were declaring their 
right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, San Fran- 
cisco was settled. The first white men to make a 
permanent home on the bay which has since become 
one of the world's most famous harbors, were a small 
company of Spaniards led by two Spanish priests, 
Father Francisco Palou and Pedro Benito Cambon. 
They knew nothing of the momentous events going on 
three thousand miles to the east of them around the 
harbor of Boston. They were holy men, looking only 
for an opportunity to extend Spam's dominion in the 
new world through the influence of the Church. Spain 
had long been active in setting up missions on the 
southern shores of the North American continent, 
where brave and zealous Catholic fathers remained to 
labor for the conversion of Indian souls. To understand 
the motives which inspired the little band of zealots in 
wandering thus far into the unknown lands upon the 

253 



254 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

outer rim of the western world, and to learn their means 
of establishing themselves there, a swift backward 
glance is necessary. 

In a charming little volume called " San Francisco 
and Thereabout/' by Charles Keeler, is found the fol- 
lowing delightful description of the adventures of 
those days: 

" During those far away times when Protestant 
Elizabeth jealously watched the doings of Catholic 
Philip, a lonely galleon sailed once a year across the 
waste of the Pacific from the Philippine Islands to the 
Mexican port of Acapulco. It was laden with spice 
and the treasure of the Orient destined for Seville. 
English buccaneers lurked in the bays of the west coast 
of the Americas waiting to plunder the treasure ship, 
or, failing in capturing this prize, to loot the Spanish 
towns of Central and South America. Foremost of 
these daring pirates was Francis Drake, who followed 
up the coast of North America and passed San Fran- 
cisco Harbor without discovering it. It was in the 
year 1579 that he landed in the bay which today bears 
his name and took possession of the territory, call- 
ing it New Albion, and holding there, before a won- 
dering band of Indians, the first Protestant service 
on the Pacific shore. A stone cross has recently been 
erected in Golden Gate Park to commemorate this 
event. 

" Even before this time, California had been named 
and its coast superficially inspected by the Spaniards. 
Cortez and the explorers in his service had sailed about 
the end of Lower California, which they supposed to 
be an island. They had read the popular romance, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 255 

Sergas of Esplandian, wherein is described a fabulous 
race of Amazons, decked in armor and precious gems, 
who lived on an island to the right of the Indies, and 
half hoping no doubt to prove the fiction real, had 
called their discovery after the mythical land of the 
Amazons, California.* Barren and unpromising the 
region proved to be. Cabrillo in 1542 sailed along the 
coast and in 1603 Vizcaino explored it, mapping the 
bays of San Diego and Monterey, but adding little else 
of value to the knowledge of the region. He noted, 
however, that as he proceeded northward, the country 
became greener and more inviting in appearance. 

" Not until the year 1768 was there any serious 
thought of settling the region which today is known 
as California. Baja or Lower California was occu- 
pied by Jesuits until the hostility of the government 
drove them from the land. Their missions were taken 
by the Dominicans and the way was at last open for 
the Franciscans to undertake the settlement of the 
practically unknown wilderness of Alta or Upper Cal- 
ifornia. Junipero Serra, a fervid enthusiast, was chos- 
en as leader of the movement, and he lost no time in 
setting out, with three little vessels and two land 
parties, for San Diego, where he proposed to locate 
the first of the new establishments. According to the 
plan of the governor-general, Galvez, three missions 
were to be founded at San Diego, Monterey and at a 
point midway between the two, to be called San Buena- 
ventura. When the devoted Junipero Serra heard this 



*An attempt has been made to find the derivation of California in two 
Spanish words, caliente fomalla, a hot furnace, but this origin is generally 
discredited. 



256 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

he asked if St. Francis, the founder of their order, was 
to have no mission dedicated to him. Galvez answered 
discreetly that if Saint Francis wished a mission he 
could show them a port where it was to be located. 
It was this remark that later led to the founding and 
naming of San Francisco on the bay of the Golden 
Gate." 

Thus, like the great cities of the old world, San 
Francisco has a mythology. In that sense it is the 
direct antithesis of all its rivals for metropolitan hon- 
ors in the United States. This has contributed to 
make it peculiarly fascinating to the artistic tempera- 
ment, and much of the real American romance, either 
in prose or poetry, that dignifies American letters has 
had its inspiration in and about the Golden Gate. 

In 1767 Father Junipero Serra started northward 
and with a small band penetrated into lower California 
as far as San Diego. In an endeavor to locate the bay 
of Monterey members of his party accidentally discov- 
ered the wonderful harbor a hundred miles and more 
beyond. The party was commanded by Governor 
Portala, and included Captain Moncade, Lieutenant 
Frages, Engineer Costanso, Sergeant Ortega and two 
priests, Padre Crespi and Padre Gomez, together with 
thirty-five soldiers, a number of muleteers and some 
mission Indians from Baja, California. For weeks 
they had tramped through the untraveled wilds and 
were on the point of giving up from hunger and fa- 
tigue when, climbing a crest, they suddenly looked down 
upon San Francisco Bay, which they immediately rec- 
ognized as a harbor of importance. They returned to 
San Diego and reported the discovery to Father Serra. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 257 

Upon being informed of the wonderful harbor, with its 
surrounding charms of nature, the priest declared that 
the expedition had been miraculously led by St. Fran- 
cis to the spot where he wished his mission to be estab- 
lished. He never lost sight of this idea and three 
years later he explored San Francisco Bay. But it was 
not until the fall of 1774 that at Point Lopes on a hill 
overlooking the Golden Gate and the Seal Rocks that 
a cross was set up. The next year orders were given 
to send a party of settlers from the south to establish 
the new presidio of San Francisco. From Sinaloa 
and Sonora in Mexico the party, two hundred strong, 
set forth on the long weary march over a region with- 
out roads. They were ten months making the journey 
and only a remnant of the original company finally 
reached their destination. With this party were two 
missionaries, Francisco Palou and Pedro Benito Cam- 
bon. On the San Francisco peninsula they set up the 
Dolores Mission, and it remains there to this day, 
spared even by the recent earthquake and fire. A 
short time afterward the San Carlos, a Spanish ship, 
sailed into port and all its crew and passengers set to 
work to lay out a town after the old Spanish style 
with a plaza in the center. The houses were built of 
poles, coated with mud and roofed with tule thatch. 
On September 17, 1776, the first celebration was held, 
and the little colony took possession of the presidio in 
the name of King Charles of Spain. 

A month later the second mission was founded with 
the name San Francisco Assisi. Padre Palou offici- 
ated, while the same little band of officers, soldiers and 
sailors took part in the solemnity. Then began the 



258 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

work of the church, but with discouraging results, for 
the Indians were wedded to their simple beliefs and in- 
capable of appreciating the complex forms of the estab- 
lished Church. The different tribes were often at war 
one with another, and sometimes they joined forces in 
an attack upon the mission. Christianity, however, 
made some progress and the records show that after 
five years' labor sixty-nine natives were laboring at the 
mission and ready for confirmation. 

The spiritual training of the Indians was simplified 
to the performance of certain rites and ceremonies, 
coupled with the recitation of a few Spanish or Latin 
hymns and prayers. 

When the gentler means of example and persuasion 
failed to keep the Indian in the correct path he was 
reclaimed by harsher measures. The application of 
the lash served to increase the devotion of the inatten- 
tive and a strict discipline enforced by rigorous pun- 
ishment made all mission Indians regular church goers. 
" Food of the simplest character was served them, bar- 
ley and maize with pease and beans constituting the 
staples." 

" Some of the men," writes Mr. Keeler, " toiled in 
the grain fields and learned the simple art of letting 
the wind winnow their wheat; others became expert 
vaqueros, riding after cattle, throwing the reata and 
rounding up the herd; still others were trained as boat- 
men and handled big barges on the treacherous waters 
of the bay. The women spun the wool which the 
men sheared, and wove blankets and fabrics. They 
sewed garments and were busied in making drawn- 
work altar cloths and doing other handiwork. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 259 

" Thus all were kept employed from early mass to 
vespers. With the help of the Indians, low mission 
buildings of adobe, covered over with plaster and 
roofed with tile, were constructed about the church 
to serve as workshops and dwellings. The simplest 
of clothes were provided for the people. When a girl 
was considered of a marriageable age she was allowed 
to choose one of a number of the young men and they 
were straightway mated. 

" A flourishing trade in hides and tallow grew up 
between the padres and the Yankee skippers from 
around the Horn, and this, together with contributions 
from the Pious Fund, made the mission prosper. In 
1825 the establishment was reputed to own seventy- 
nine thousand sheep, a thousand tame horses and twice 
as many breeding mares, as well as hogs, working 
oxen and a large store of wheat, merchandise, and 
some twenty-five thousand dollars in hard cash. Such 
was the prosperity of the mission of San Francisco 
at the time when Mexico gained her independence from 
Spain, but all this temporal power of the Franciscans 
proved but a passing phase in the working out of a 
greater destiny for the city by the Golden Gate." 

After the establishment of the mission there was 
little done by way of extending the settlement of San 
Francisco for nearly fifty years. Richard Henry Dana 
in his classic of California, " Two Years Before the 
Mast," gives his impressions of the port in 1835 as fol- 
lows: 

" About thirty miles from the mouth of the bay, and 
on the southeast side, is a high point upon which the 
presidio is built. Behind this is the harbor in which 



260 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

trading vessels anchor, and near it, the mission of San 
Francisco, and a newly begun settlement, mostly of 
Yankee Californians, called Yerba Buena, which prom- 
ises well. Here, at anchor, and the only vessel, was a 
brig under Russian colors, from Asitaka, in Russian 
America, which had come down to winter and to take 
in a supply of tallow and grain, great quantities of 
which latter article are raised in the missions at the 
head of the bay." 

Mr. Dana in his designation of the " outer harbor " 
evidently refers to the coast line from Point Reyes to 
Ocean Beach, since from the mouth of the Golden Gate 
to the anchorage is only from five to nine miles. 

In 1849 San Francisco became suddenly the focus 
of the eyes of the whole world. The discovery of gold 
in great measure set the cupidity of mankind ablaze and 
there was a sudden rush to the new gold fields. Men 
from every nation gathered in 'Frisco. Not only were 
most of the states of the union represented, but every 
race and every tongue had its children in that wild 
hurried gathering. India, Asia, China, Japan, the 
Philippines, Russia, the Scandinavian countries, France 
and England, — all sent their hardiest and most adven- 
turous subjects to dig and pan for the yellow metal 
with unprecedented frenzy, and with a seeming disre- 
gard for its worth gambled it away with a recklessness 
unknown in the history of the world. Men who had 
never known the meaning of large sums of money be- 
came suddenly rich, and as suddenly threw away their 
fortune in the wildest kind of extravagance. They 
did not seek other scenes, or distant lands in which to 
make a show of their good luck. The gold washed 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 261 

from the beds of the California streams they spent in 
the squalid huts of the straggling mining town, and 
when it was gone returned uncomplainingly to hunt for 
more. 

Not all the miners, however, were of such reckless 
and volatile dispositions. A few were ambitious for 
the future and made the most of the spendthrift spirit 
of the time. These grew in wealth and power and 
soon came to wield an influence beyond the confines 
of their state. John C. Fremont in 1846 had blazed 
a way across the plains and over the Rockies and Sier- 
ras. On July 4, 1846, the Assembly of Americans at 
Soboma declared their independence, made Fremont 
governor, and issued a formal declaration of war. Two 
years of war followed when the Americans were final- 
ly victorious and the last political obstacle to emi- 
gration of American pioneers had been removed. At 
the news of the discovery of gold they flocked to the 
country in such numbers that they were soon the dom- 
inant force in San Francisco. 

The city of San Francisco grew. In the year '49 a 
two-story hotel, known as the Parker House, rented 
for $110,000 annually. Something like $60,000 of this 
was paid by gamblers who occupied the second story. 
A canvas tent fifteen by twenty-five feet, and called El 
Dorado, was leased to gamblers for $40,000 a year. 
Provisions and wages were correspondingly high. It 
did not matter so much who a man was as how sturdy 
and strong he might be, how free with his gold, how 
quick to resent an insult, or to accept a retraction. 

When countries are in the state of development, and 
the citizen is unable to protect his property in vaults, 



£62 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

honesty becomes the principal tenet of the law. So it 
was in San Francisco in the days of the gold ex- 
citement. Men left their possessions anywhere without 
guard, quite certain they would not be disturbed. The 
penalty of thievery was death. This manner of living 
introduced a sort of rough chivalry that became the 
custom in mining camps all over the world. Modern 
commercialism has dulled the edge of this ennobling 
sentiment, and the Alaskan country during the recent 
discoveries of gold in that region was not ruled by 
it to any marked degree. 

For four years, until 1853, San Francisco enjoyed 
unprecedented prosperity. Not only were the mines 
developed in every possible way known to that time, 
but the rich country round about the city was culti- 
vated and made to produce greater riches than the 
mines. The decline in gold production in 1853 was 
followed by a period of comparative quiet and read- 
justment. In spite of the fact that for a number of 
years the annual output of gold continued above fifty 
million dollars, public confidence in the boundless na- 
ture of the supply declined. Dull times fell upon San 
Francisco until the exciting days of the Civil War, when 
union or secession became a burning issue. The state 
decided with the north and showed its loyalty by sub- 
scribing for some time to the Sanitary Commission 
twenty-five thousand dollars a month, half the sum 
contributed by the entire country. This from a city 
of a hundred and ten thousand people astonished the 
whole country. It was the bread cast upon the waters 
that is returning after many days a thousand-fold in- 
creased. 






THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 263 

During the stirring times before the war, the eager- 
ness to receive news and to communicate with far- 
away friends became so great that the pony express 
was started. Hardy riders carried the mail-bags on 
fast broncos all the long and dangerous way from Sac- 
ramento to St. Joseph, Missouri, the western terminus 
of the railroad. The distance was covered in the sur- 
prisingly short interval of ten and a half days, making 
the time from San Francisco to New York only thir- 
teen days. i 

Still the people of California realized the necessity 
for closer relations with their kinsmen across the Rocky 
Mountains, and a railroad was the issue of the day. 
Congress, appreciating the strategic importance 'of a 
transcontinental system, listened to the demands of 
California and passed a bill for the construction of the 
road. In 1863 work on what seemed an almost hope- 
less undertaking was commenced at Sacramento. A 
small company of men who had been successful in busi- 
ness enterprises in Sacramento, notably Leland Stan- 
ford, C. P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins, Charles Crock- 
er and E. B. Crocker, secured enormous concessions 
from the government, both in land and money, for 
building the Central Pacific Road, while another com- 
pany received similar grants for constructing the Un- 
ion Pacific Road, starting at the eastern end of the 
line. The dramatic race across the continent in the 
construction of these roads, each of which was to have 
all the line it had laid up to the point of meeting, end- 
ed on the desert near the Qreat Salt Lake, where, with 
due ceremony, in May, 1869, Leland Stanford drove 



264 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the last spike in the line which united California with 
the East. 

It was indeed an auspicious time for California, but 
San Francisco was disappointed with the result. The 
directors of the road lived, during the first few years, 
at Sacramento. An effort, the second in the history 
of the city, was made by people interested in Benicia, 
to make that place a rival of San Francisco, and to have 
the overland terminus there. Furthermore, the inten- 
tion of the Central Pacific directors to make Goat 
Island their approach to San Francisco, connecting it 
by 'ferry with the city, was so hotly contested that the 
permission of Congress was withheld. Instead of the 
expected boom upon the completion of the road, San 
Francisco suffered a most disastrous panic. 

After the decline of gold in California, speculative 
interest in the precious metals was revived by the dis- 
covery in Nevada of vast deposits of silver. As these 
mines were largely owned and controlled in San Fran- 
cisco, the market in silver stocks became a gambling 
enterprise on a vast scale. Fortunes were made and 
lost in a day and the prosperity of San Francisco was 
dependent upon the reports of the outlook in Virginia 
City. In 1862 the Comstock Lode produced six mil- 
lion dollars in silver. Speculation in the mines of 
this region was so great that, in the following year, 
stocks of one company sold at six thousand three hun- 
dred dollars a share. Of course a panic ensued, al- 
though the yield of the Nevada mines in 1864 reached 
sixteen million dollars. 

Ten years later all this fever of speculation was 
eclipsed by the vast yield of the Comstock Lode. Fab- 




THE JAPANESE GARDEN— GOLDEN GATE PARK. 

It was to these beautiful grounds that over 100,000 homeless, starving people went 

for safety. 




INNER QUADRANGLE OF LELAND STANFORD UNIVERSITY. 
This beautiful University was almost entirely wrecked by earthquake; only one 

small building left standing. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 267 

ulous sums were taken from the Consolidated Viiginia 
and the Gold Hill Bonanzas. In less than four years 
the Belcher and Crown Point mines had produced 
forty million dollars. Then came the Consolidated 
Virginia, paying monthly dividends of three hundred 
thousand dollars. So wild was the excitement that 
the combined value of the Comstock shares is said 
to have increased during two months at the rate of a 
million dollars a day. 

This was the time when the bonanza kings reaped 
their harvest. The most spectacular of the fortunes 
made thus were amassed by two San Franciscans, J. C 
Flood and W. S. O'Brien. They began investing in a 
small way as early as 1862 in the Kentuck mine, but it 
was not until some years later, when associated with 
two practical miners of Virginia City, J. W. Mackay 
and J. G. Fair, that their operations became so large 
as to attract public attention. At the time they se- 
cured possession of the Consolidated Virginia, its 
shares had a mere nominal value, since it had yielded 
no returns and showed little prospect of so doing. 
Luck was with them in the venture, and when a fabu- 
lously rich vein was unearthed the stock rose so that 
the four men found themselves possessed of princely 
fortunes. 

Happily for California the day is over when her 
prosperity is dependent upon lucky mining strikes. 
The mineral output of the state for 1900 was over thir- 
ty-two million dollars, no inconsiderable sum even in 
comparison with the great yields of the past, but today 
the state relies upon such diversity of products that 
the vicissitudes of mining cannot shake it. In 1900 



268 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the vralue of the cured fruit crop was eleven million 
dollars, only four million less than the gold output for 
the same year, and this is but an index of the product- 
iveness in other horticultural and pastoral lines. 
Wheat, wool, oil, borax, beet-sugar, lumber and build- 
ing stone are among the many products which con- 
tribute to the wealth of California. 

San Francisco was the legitimate center of all this 
outpouring of nature's bounty, and once the state had 
permanent settlement its principal city grew with won- 
derful rapidity. In 1900 San Francisco had, accord- 
ing to the government census, a population of 342,782. 
Since that time, because of the new possessions of the 
United States in the East and the consequent increase 
of this country's trade with the Orient, the coast cities 
have become far more important in the commercial de- 
velopment of America. San Francisco has reaped the 
benefit of this fact and at the time of the earthquake 
recorded in this volume the city boasted a population 
of over four hundred thousand. Its streets were 
equipped with a model system of tramways, its hotels 
were patterns of elegance and splendor, its newspapers 
vigorous and the spirit of the city rugged and free, a 
dower of the argonauts who braved sea and mountain 
and desert to settle in its beautiful valleys and about 
the glorious bay. 



CHAPTER XX 

THE PARIS OF AMERICA 

San Francisco Was One of the Most Beautiful Cities 
in the World and the Pride of the Pacific Coast — 
Handsome Buildings, Hotels, City Hall, Magnificent 
Residences, Beautiful Churches and Parks the De- 
light of Every Visitor — Nob Hill, the Home of the 
Comstock Kings, Art, Refinement and Riches — 
Growth of the City Phenomenal During the Agri- 
cultural and Manufacturing Periods Which Suc- 
ceeded the Golden Age — Business Receives Impetus 
by Declaration of War with Spain — Rivalry of Other 
Coast Cities. 

Topographically, San Francisco occupies a site at 
once superb and commanding. Built along the east- 
ern slope of a peninsula eight miles in width, with the 
broad Pacific lapping its shores on the west and the 
Bay of San Francisco on the east, it possesses natural 
advantages which make it extremely desirable, both as 
a place of residence and as a center for investment in 
its growing enterprises. With its northwestern spur 
resting upon the Golden Gate, the city is the entre 
pot for the commerce of the orient and the possibilities 
of the future were boundless until in a single day the 
cosmopolis of America was swept away and its fu- 
ture enshrouded in uncertainty, mystery and gloom. 

The first building that greeted the eye of the tourist 

269 



270 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

coming overland from the east as he crossed the beau- 
tiful Bay from Oakland Pier, was the Union Ferry 
Depot, erected by the State of California at great ex- 
pense because of the difficulty experienced in securing 
a firm foundation in the banks of mud and silt upon 
which it rested. To the right of the incoming traveler 
rose the heights of Telegraph Hill, where, in the old 
days, the flag announcing the arrivals of steamers was 
floated. To the center of the picture, but more in 
the background, could be seen Nob Hill, upon which 
the magnificent residences of James Flood, the Corn- 
stock king; Charles Crocker, the railway magnate; 
Senator Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Collis P. 
Huntington and other multi-millionaires stood re- 
splendent in beauty of construction and ornateness of 
finish. Straight in front, as one stepped out of the 
Ferry Building, lay Market Street, lined by beautiful 
and massive business structures and running in a 
straight line to Twin Peaks, four miles to the west- 
ward. To the left lay the Potrero, and finally Hunt- 
er's Point near which is located the Union Iron Works 
where were constructed the peerless battleship Ore- 
gon and other warships which were later to become 
the pride of the American navy and an honor to the 
country's flag. 

The architectural beauty of the devastated city was 
one of its chief est charms; although in its transition 
period, the art v/as making rapid advancement and the 
character of its buildings combined solidity and firm- 
ness with beauty and taste. In the last two decades, 
the old wooden buildings had largely been displaced 
by structures of iron and stone, especially in the sec- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 271 

tions north and south of Market Street and east of 
Powell. To the westward, in the Mission, Hayes Val- 
ley, Visitation Valley, and the whole of the western 
addition, lay the residence district, crowded with thou- 
sands of beautiful homes, surrounded by grassy lawns 
and their slopes covered with roses that bloomed all the 
year round. In recent years, the needs of the grow- 
ing population forced the erection of innumerable flat 
buildings, richly finished and artistically designed. 
Built almost exclusively of wood, these handsome 
structures furnished ample fuel upon which the fire 
fiend later was to feed with ghoulish glee. 

While the public buildings of San Francisco were 
not numerous, those constructed in recent years were 
the best money could supply. The old buildings, with 
their covering of mortar, were being displaced by steel 
and solid granite structures, and architecturally, they 
showed vast improvement. The new City Hall which 
occupied a three-cornered tract, bounded by Larkin 
and McAllister Street and City Hall Avenue, was a 
noble structure. More than twenty years were spent 
in its construction and its cost was $6,000,000. With 
a dome 335 feet in height, surmounted by a massive 
figure of Progress, by Marion Wells, it was a digni- 
fied landmark that greeted the eye from every eleva- 
tion in the city. 

The Hall of Justice, in which were located the courts, 
city prison, police station and other public offices, was 
a notable example of fin de siecle architecture. It 
stood on the site of the old Jenny Lind Theater and 
had replaced the " Old City Hall " which, in its day, 
was the most famous gambling house in the new me- 



272 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

tropolis. The new hall was completed three years ago 
and cost nearly $1,000,000. The County Jail, on Broad- 
way, near Kearney, which escaped the flames, is a relic 
of the past, and its decrepit appearance reflects little 
credit upon the municipality. The House of Correc- 
tion on the Mission Road, and the City and County 
Hospital at the foot of Twenty-sixth Street, complete 
the list of municipal buildings. 

The Federal Government was represented by the 
Customs House at Washington and Battery Streets in 
which the United States courts and federal offices were 
lodged. The building was of red brick and presented 
an unsightly appearance. The commissary depart- 
ment of the army and navy stood on New Montgom- 
ery Street, just back of the ill-fated Palace Hotel. It 
was a ramshackle concern and added little to the 
beauty of the city. The new postoflice at Seventh and 
Mission Streets, however, was a noble structure of 
granite and marble and cost a tidy sum. The facilities 
for handling mail were of the best and visiting post- 
office officials pronounced the building one of the best 
in the United States. It suffered severely in the con- 
flagration, but was not wholly wrecked. 

The libraries of San Francisco added to its fame. 
The free Public Library, located in the City Hall, con- 
tained nearly 200,000 well selected volumes. The fa- 
mous Sutro library of 85,000 volumes of rare books 
and manuscripts, including numerous fine examples of 
illumined books made by the monks in the dark ages, 
was in the old Montgomery Block, an early landmark 
which stood at Washington and Montgomery Streets. 
The Mechanics Library on Van Ness Avenue, the 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 273 

French Library on Larkin Street near the new City 
Hall and the innumerable private libraries belonging 
to wealthy residents, placed the citizens within reach 
of the best that genius and cultivated taste in litera- 
ture and art could supply. 

In the character of its hotels, San Francisco espe- 
cially was renowned. Foremost among the world- 
famed hostelries was the Palace Hotel at the corner 
of Market and New Montgomery Streets. Seven 
stories in height, built of steel, wood and plaster, of 
beautiful design, it was a conspicuous sight. With its 
2,000 rooms fitted up in sumptuous style, its accom- 
modations were the best that science could suggest or 
unlimited wealth supply. Its cuisine was the wonder 
of crowned heads, titled travelers and notables of many 
lands who spent days and weeks each year under its 
roof. A magnificent colonnade, fashioned after the fa- 
mous Parisian model and which was reached by a drive- 
way from the street, and a profusion of semi-tropical 
plants, gave to the interior of the hotel a soft beauty 
which added vastly to its attractiveness for visitors. 
The Palace was built by William Ralston, a banker, 
about 1875, an d later became the property of Senator 
Sharon. More than $2,000,000 was spent in improve- 
ments upon the structure since the foundation stones 
were laid and within its walls many notables, including 
foreign potentates and presidents of the United States, 
found comfortable lodgings and solid entertainment. 

The St. Francis Hotel, which faced Union Square, 
was a grand structure. Built entirely of stone and 
marble, it was architecturally the most imposing build- 
ing in San Francisco. Its cost was $2,000,000 and a 



274 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

vast sum was expended upon its appointments. The 
Fairmount Hotel on Nob Hill was a superb structure, 
recently erected at enormous expense. Next in or- 
der came the California Hotel, a superb structure of 
pressed brick and stone, ten stories high, on Bush 
Street, west of Kearney, the Occidental Hotel on Mont- 
gomery Street between Sutter and Bush, the Lick 
House a block to the southward, whose dining room 
was the finest in the world, the Grand Hotel, oppo- 
site the Palace, the Russ House on Montgomery, be- 
tween Bush and Pine Streets, and the Golden West 
Hotel on Ellis, near Powell Streets. In addition to 
these hostelries, there were innumerable French res- 
taurants which for years were the delight of bon 
vivants because of their unsurpassed cuisine. Among 
the more notable of these may be mentioned the Poodle 
Dog, Marchand's, Maison Riche, Maison St. Germain, 
Delmonico's, Cafe Zinkand, and a host of others. All 
contributed to increase the fame of San Francisco as 
" the heaven for bon vivants and dilettantes of epicur- 
ean taste and delicate palates," and all went down in 
the storm of flame. 

The attractions offered by San Francisco in the way 
of amusements were as varied as they were attractive. 
Its theaters were of the best, and because of the dis- 
criminating tastes of the theater-going public, only the 
best that the dramatic and musical world had to offer 
was rewarded by substantial patronage. The Grand 
Opera House, a portion of the estate of the late Sena- 
tor James G. Fair, on Mission Street above Third, was 
a notable amusement place. Owing to its immense 
size, its stage alone was adapted for pretentious pro- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER. 275 

ductions and the greatest singers of the world have 
appeared thereon, amid tumultuous applause. Almost 
every actor of note the world has produced in recent 
years has played his parts within the now shattered 
walls and he invariably was greeted by overflowing 
houses. It is significant that grand opera was being 
presented there during the week of the catastrophe. 

The Columbia Theater, on Powell Street near Mar- 
ket, was an attractive house of the first class. The 
Alcazar Theater, on O'Farrell Street between Stock- 
ton and Powell, was a stock theater of the better class, 
while the Orpheum, directly opposite, was devoted to 
vaudeville. Next the Alcazar, to the westward, was 
Fisher's Theater, a burlesque house. The California 
Theater on Bush Street, where, in the early days, the 
best American actors matriculated, was a favorite 
house. On upper Market Street stood the Central 
Theater, a melodrama stock house, while a block west 
of it, at the corner of Ninth Street, was the Majestic 
Theater, also a stock house of the first class. In addi- 
tion to the places of amusement named, there were 
many cheaper theaters, but all of them did a thriving 
business all the year round. 

In a city as cosmopolitan as was San Francisco, it 
is to be expected that its clubs would be plentiful and 
imposing. The best known club was the Bohemian, 
known not because of the beauty and luxury of its 
clubhouse, the excellence of its cuisine, or the supe- 
riority of the wines in its cellars, but for the comrade- 
ship of its associations, the pictures upon its walls, and 
its unique entertainments. The club was started by 
newspaper men, artists, musicians and actors in 1872, 



276 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and its jinks have gained world wide fame. As this 
club stands for easy-going fellowship, the Pacific-Un- 
ion Club, at Post and Stockton Streets, represented the 
wealth and dignity of San Francisco. Its membership 
included the foremost merchants, financiers and men 
of affairs of the city. The University Club, organized 
in 1890, was the favorite gathering place of all univer- 
sity men of the country, and its accommodations were 
of the best. The Cosmos Club, organized in 1881, is 
magnificently lodged at Sutter and Octavia Streets, 
and it numbers among its membership nearly all the 
army and navy men of note who, at one time or other, 
were stationed at Mare Island or the Presidio. The 
Union League, a powerful Republican organization, 
the Concordia Club, San Francisco Verein, the Press 
Club of San Francisco, the Burlingame Country Club, 
the Century, the Sorosis, the Forum, the Laurel Hill, 
the Corona, the California and Philomath, the seven 
latter being women's clubs, indicate that club life had 
its attractions and was heartily supported by the 
stricken citizens before the crowning disaster came and 
robbed them of their homes. 

The transportation facilities of San Francisco were 
of the best. Its street car service, cable and electric, 
was superb. The various lines, merged under one man- 
agement, reached every section of the peninsula, how- 
ever remote, and contributed to improve the outlying 
districts. The cable lines climb hills and descend into 
valleys of surprising height and depth, but it was this 
fact that entranced visitors who were on their way 
to the park and Cliff House. Trailing along lawn- 
lined streets, roses of every hue in evidence at every 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 277 

turn, a journey through the western addition resembled 
an excursion into fairy land. Much of this floral beau- 
tification of the city in recent years was due to the 
efforts of San Francisco's Improvement League, which, 
in 1904, secured the passage of enabling acts by which 
bonds to the amount of $18,000,000 were to be issued 
for the purpose of building a million-dollar hospital, 
playgrounds, and for park and boulevard improve- 
ments. A crusade was then begun to plant flowers, 
decorate dooryards and to arouse every citizen to a 
sense of civic responsibility. 

In its parks, the city was especially fortunate. Gold- 
en Gate Park, one of the largest in the world, is a 
charming spot in which nature and art vie with each 
other in the superiority of their achievements. Flow- 
ers, semi-tropical plants, rare exotics, charm the sense, 
while imposing statuary and innumerable works of art 
attract the eye at every turn. From its elevated 
points, notably Strawberry Hill, the blue Pacific 
sweeps to the limits of the horizon on the west, and 
in the north the rugged Tamalpais rears its lofty 
heights into the clouds. To the eastward the Bay of 
San Francisco glistens in the sunlight, forming a nev- 
er-to-be-forgotten picture. 

Every facility in the way of entertaining visitors at 
the park abounded. There was boating in the minia- 
ture lakes, playgrounds for the children were numer- 
ous, and to the curious, the California Museum offered 
unusual attractions. Other parks abounded in the 
city; Portsmouth Square, Washington, Jefferson, Tele- 
graph Hill, Union Square and a host of " breathing 
places " scattered throughout the city, contributed in 



278 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

many respects to make San Francisco a veritable para- 
dise. 

In the character of its churches, with the diversity 
of their architecture and richness of their finish, San 
Francisco ranked among the leading cities of the 
world. The stately St. Ignatius Church and College, 
erected at a cost of more than $2,000,000, stood at the 
corner of Van Ness Avenue and Hayes Street, and 
both early fell prey to the insatiable flames. Two 
blocks to the eastward, the tall towers of St. Mary's 
Cathedral, of white stone and red brick, rose in sol- 
emn majesty. The building was badly damaged, but 
happily, not beyond repair. Only the churches in the 
downtown districts, north and south of Market Street, 
and east of Van Ness Avenue, including Grace Epis- 
copal Church on Nob Hill, were destroyed. Those 
in the residence district in the Western Addition prac- 
tically escaped unscathed. 

It were a superfluous task to describe in detail the 
innumerable buildings of imposing aspect which were 
reduced to ashes in the fire that attended the earth- 
quake. Among these were splendid business blocks, 
such as the Haywood Block, the Merchants' Exchange, 
the Continental Insurance Company's building, the 
stately Call, Chronicle and Examiner structures, which 
formed what was known as " the angle " at the inter- 
section of Market, Kearny, Geary and Third Streets. 
In the eastern district of the city, which was wholly 
devastated, there were dozens of banks and office 
buildings, the homes of lawyers and professional and 
business men. These were destroyed with all their 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 279 

contents, the aggregate loss reaching a stupendous 
sum. 

Commercially, San Francisco long had been the 
chief city of the Pacific Coast, and its trade, since 
1898, was rapidly increasing, owing to the impetus 
given its industries by the Spanish-American war and 
the consequent acquisition by the United States of the 
Philippines. As a manufacturing center, it was 
swiftly forging to the front rank. The quality of all 
its outputs was of the highest and its trade extended 
to the Orient and Occident as well as to the coast 
countries of North and South America. The mag- 
nificent harbor facilities and its railway connections 
with the east, afforded by the Southern Pacific and 
Santa Fe Railways, prompted the United States Gov- 
ernment to transact all its business with the Philip- 
pines by way of San Francisco. This contributed 
largely to swell the volume of imports and exports of 
the city, and was a strong agent in developing many 
industries which for years had struggled on without 
substantial reward. Foreign capital poured into the 
city, infusing new life into the veins of its lagging 
commerce and adding strength and vigor to every 
branch of business. 

The rapid growth of San Francisco necessarily 
caused jealousy among other rival cities of the Pacific 
Coast, but the pioneers of " the days of gold and the 
days of old," as well as the younger, but more ener- 
getic business men of San Francisco, worked while 
their detractors lauded the pre-eminence of their re- 
spective sections. It is a noteworthy fact that when 
disaster overwhelmed the city by the bay, its most 



280 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

bitter rivals in the days of prosperity were the first to 
rally to its support, with outstretched arms and open 
purses. It is this spirit of fraternity in the days of 
adversity which is one of the grandest traits of the 
men of the setting sun and it is this spirit, exercised 
in the proper channel, which will contribute to the 
rebuilding of San Francisco on a scale of greatness 
and solidity to which it might never under ordinary 
circumstances have aspired. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO 

The Golden Gate at Sunset — A Harbor Sufficient to 
Float the Navies of the World — Panoramic View 
From the Coast Superb — Flowers of a Thousand 
Hues Bloom Upon the Hillsides — Winter Scenes the 
Most Charming — The Great Ferry — A Vision of 
Loveliness. 

To have looked at sunset through the Golden Gate 
and watch the sun like a great dolphin plunge into the 
sea, seeming to heat the waters to a glowing red, which 
reflected in the sky made a thousand delicate colors 
and shades to veil the whole landscape, is to know the 
real meaning of those lines of Keats: 

" Beauty is truth, truth, beauty; that is all 
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know." 

To one who has not often seen that miracle of nature 
an attempt to describe it would be futile. Even those 
who have watched this transformation almost every 
evening for a lifetime are content to enjoy it in 
silence. Under the heading " The Peerless Bay/' Charles 
Keeler, a native son of San Francisco, and a writer of 
peculiar grace and delicacy, pictures this unparalleled 
harbor. " A free sweep of water navigable for the 
largest ocean vessels over a stretch of well-nigh sixty 
miles; a land-locked harbor with but a single passage 

281 



282 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

a mile in width leading to its sequestered waters; a 
haven cut off by hills and mountains from the ocean, 
yet so accessible that the largest steamers can enter on 
all tides — such is San Francisco Bay with its four hun- 
dred and fifty square miles of water! A quarter of 
the population of California dwells on its shores. 
With a width varying from seven to twelve miles, it 
lies just within the Coast Mountain spurs that em- 
brace it, and in that most temperate of latitudes, the 
thirty-eighth parallel. Its upper reaches are subdi- 
vided into two inner bays — San Pablo and Suisun. 
The former, with a diameter of some ten miles, is the 
northern end of the great waterway, while the latter, 
connected by the narrow Craquinez Straits, lies to the 
eastward and appears like a huge reservoir into which 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers pour their 
flood. 

" Such is the harbor which Portala first looked upon 
from the heights in 1769, and into which the little 
Spanish ship San Carlos sailed in 1775. Great are the 
changes which have taken place since then, but we of 
today are only on the threshold of the civilization des- 
tined to flourish here. This peerless bay, accessible, 
deep, safe, convenient, large enough for all the navies 
and merchant fleets of the world without crowding, 
in a climate free from winter snow and summer heat, 
surrounded by one of the most productive countries 
known, where nature is lavish alike of her fruits and 
precious metals, — who dare set a limit upon its growth? 
The eyes of the world are upon the Pacific now, and 
upon the United States. San Francisco Bay is the 
great point of departure for America into the Pacific, 




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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 285 

and as such is destined to be one of the great world 
harbors of the years to come. 

" What wonder that many explorers sailed along the 
California coast and failed to perceive the narrow break 
in the rocks through which the Sacramento River rolls 
to the sea? Fifteen miles away, more or less, the 
Berkeley Hills rise from the farther shore of the bay, 
forming a background, which, viewed from the ocean 
on a misty day, appears to effectually close up the 
mile-wide gap which alone affords an entrance to the 
broad expanse of secluded water. Barren dreary rocks 
flank the shores, fog-hung and storm-worn, inhabited 
by cormorants and murres. To the south, guarding 
the entrance, is Point Lobos, with the Seal Rocks off 
shore where herds of sea lions bask in the sun or fish 
in the adjacent water. To the north is Point Bonita, 
where a lighthouse and fog horn warn mariners to 
avoid the rocks. Through the narrows the tide runs 
like a millrace. An old-fashioned brick fort stands 
close by the water at the inner point of the strait on 
the city shore. It is now abandoned, but upon bluffs 
to right and left are terraced embankments behind 
which lurk batteries of immense disappearing guns, 
while just inside the Gate in the midst of the bay is a 
rocky islet which has been converted into a citadel 
commanding the entire channel. This is the pict- 
uresque Alcatraz Island, a point of peculiar strategic 
importance in the fortification of the bay. 

" On either side of the Golden Gate a peninsula juts 
from the mainland, with the sea to westward and the 
bay to eastward. The northern peninsula is occupied 
by Mount Tamalpais and the Bolinas Ridge, with vil- 



286 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

lages and charming residence suburbs nestling at its 
base (Belvedere, Sausalito, Mill Valley and San Ra- 
fael) while upon the hills of the southern tongue of 
land is the city of San Franci'sco. Straight away east- 
ward on the far shore of the bay, stretching along the 
plain and foothills of the low spurs of the Coast Moun- 
tains, is a group of towns and cities which are prac- 
tically fused into one, although still retaining their 
separate names and municipal governments. The 
principal of these are Alameda, Oakland and Berkeley, 
with an aggregate population of about one hundred 
thousand. 

" San Francisco Bay is an ever-changing pageant 
of gray and blue, with purple hills on its margin vary- 
ing with the season from green to brown. The same 
point of view seldom appears twice alike. Seasons, 
weather, hour, all stamp their imprint upon it and 
make it live. It is the more companionable because 
of its many surprises. You think you have followed 
it through the whole gamut of its changes, grave and 
gay, veiled and transparent, calm and tempestuous, 
when behold the next hour has transfigured the scene 
and presents an aspect before undreamed !" 

What San Francisco bay was before the earthquake 
can be imagined from Mr. Keeler's description which 
was written when the city stood intact. He dwells 
on the charms of the place as one who knew and loved 
its every feature. 

" Who shall undertake to describe this palpitating 
wonder of water and cloud, margined with billowy 
ranges? At best it must be but a few fleeting impress- 
ions that the pen transfixes. In summer-time, when 






THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 287 

many rainless months succeed, the hills are sear and 
brown. The monsoon sweeps in through the Goldon 
Gate and spends its refreshing salt breath upon the 
Berkeley Range, flecking the dull greenish-blue tide 
with white. Off to the south the water seems to reach 
away to a misty dreamland. Somewhere down there 
is the prosperous city of San Jose, but of this the eye 
gives no hint. Northwards there is a long rolling 
boundary line of pale purple hills. Red Rock, an 
island in the bay, stands up as a striking bit of con- 
trasting color. We can distinguish the dark bands 
of eucalyptus groves high up on the tawny slopes of 
the Berkeley Hills, and the settlement below dotting 
the foothills for some miles. To the northwest is 
Tamalpais, rising gracefully to its 2,600 feet, a pale 
blue mountain mass with keenly chiseled profile, slant- 
ing down to the north in a fine sweep, with the hills 
of Angel Island in the foreground. In a secluded nook 
at the northern end of the bay, opposite the little town 
of Vallejo, lies the Mare Island Navy Yard, with its 
drydock, repair shops, and equipment for the naval 
base of the Pacific squadron. 

" From Black Point, the military reservation just 
within the Golden Gate, the profile of San Francisco 
is built up in big terrace lines to the quaint old frame 
battlemented structure on the bold rocky summit of 
Telegraph Hill. Thence in long sinuous sags, inter- 
rupted by the square angles of houses atop the ridge, 
it runs; streets may be seen plowing through the banks 
of buildings up the steep slopes. The turrets of the 
Mark Hopkins Institute of Art stand out conspicu- 
ously on the summit of California Street Hill, from 



288 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

which point the ridge falls off abruptly to the low- 
land of the valley followed by Market Street. The 
city's main thoroughfare may be traced from afar 
by three landmarks — the slender gray stone clock 
tower of the Ferry Building, the high domed Spreckels 
Building and the dome of the City Hall, surmounted 
by a colossal figure of Liberty.* This dome is the 
third highest in the world, rising to a height of three 
hundred and thirty feet, and is a graceful point in the 
city's heart whether viewed from sea or shore. 

" Beyond the valley which sunders the hills of San 
Francisco, rise the Twin Peaks to a height of over 
nine hundred feet. On extends the range south into 
San Mateo County where the mountains stretch away 
in blue misty reaches. 

" The waterfront is lined with docks crowded with 
ships and steamers, the slender masts and maze of rig- 
ging foresting the shore with ropes and spars. Other 
ships and white transports from the Philippines lie 
at anchor here and there off shore, with an occasional 
battle-ship or cruiser to lend impressiveness to the 
scene. Comfortable fat white ferry boats with black 
smokestacks slip in and out on their journeys to and 
from the opposite shores. In midstream is Yerba 
Buena Island, now popularly known by its nickname 
of Goat Island — a rounded land mass, treeless and 
brown on its exposed side but with groves of live-oak 
hidden away on its northern slopes. A naval training 
station is located there, fitting boys for sea duty on our 
men-of-war. 



*The Spreckels Building and City Hall were destroyed. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 289 

" To the eastern eye accustomed to verdure in 
summer-time, the dry hills of San Francisco Bay look 
strange enough, but the old resident loves this aspect 
of nature and would not change it had he the power. 
There is something quieting and restful about the 
sober tones which vary from brown and yellow 
through a whole range of purples, grays and blues, 
with plumbeous curtains of fog rolling in from the 
sea. The wide vistas, the dignity and gravity of the 
scene, the bigness and freedom of all, sink deep into 
the heart. There is nothing trivial or commonplace, 
nothing merely pretty about it. Its largeness and 
nobility grow upon the beholder with years of resi- 
dence. 

" At times all this varied sweep of view is revealed 
in the utmost detail, with sun sparkling on the rippling 
waves, and an hour later the high summer fog will 
drift over, softening the outlines, veiling the hills, 
dimming the distant heights, and giving the fancy free 
scope to build into the obscurity what it pleases. A 
fresh sea breeze generally blows across the bay 
throughout the summer, but there are days when the 
water seems fairly oily in its serenity. 

" The night views of the bay have their own charm. 
As the ferry boat leaves the waterfront, a multitude 
of bright lights sparkle at the many piers, some of 
them red and green, throwing splashes of soft waver- 
ing color in the water. The city streets up the steep 
hills are indicated by twinkling stars, and across the 
water sparkle the lights of Berkeley on the upper 
slopes. The dark dim land masses, the blackness of 
the bay with a foggy sky above leave a solemn and 



290 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

mysterious effect of vastness and loneliness on the 
mind. 

" I have dwelt on the beauty of the bay in sum- 
mer because it is so distinctively Calif ornian; but the 
winter, too, has its own loveliness. The few showers 
of early autumn are often followed by some of the 
warmest days of the year, in October and even in 
early November. This is the season when we look for 
northers, those singular wind storms which some peo- 
ple dislike, but which I for one welcome among the 
experiences of the year. The north wind blows with 
hot, dry gusts of the desert. If the rains have started 
any green blades forth, they droop and wilt beneath 
its withering fury. Every particle of moisture in the 
air is dried out and the atmosphere is crystal clear. 
At night the stars blaze and flash as if opening wide 
their wild eyes at the tumult of the wind. Each suc- 
cessive day for three days the weather grows hotter 
and drier and the force of the wind increases. Then 
the gale dies away as suddenly as it arose, to be fol- 
lowed not infrequently by a welcome shower. There 
is something immensely stimulating, exhilarating, 
even exciting about this storm beneath an azure sky. 
It is our substitute for thunderstorms which are al- 
most unknown. 

' When the winter rains finally set in, what a change 
comes over the landscape! Every shower starts forth 
the green blades on hill and plain. The southeast 
wind blows a gale, the dark clouds hurry over the leaden 
bay, the torrents fall, and everybody is happy. At the 
end of the storm, when the sun thrusts its searching 
rays through the cloud loops, striking the distant hill- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 291 

sides, a pale glint of green brightens them. Soon, 
how wonderfully soon, they are clothed in verdure 
from valley to crest! The green fairly glows and 
shimmers beneath the winter sun. And the atmos- 
phere, washed of all impurities by the downpour, is 
of matchless transparency. Every ravine and dimple 
on the blue slopes of Tamalpais is revealed in all its 
lovely nakedness. Far away on the summit of the 
San Mateo Range the redwood trees may be seen stand- 
ing up against the sky. From the Berkeley Hills, out 
through the Golden Gate the largest of the Farallone 
Islands is plainly visible forty miles away and its in- 
termittent light flashes during the hours of darkness. 
The houses of San Francisco and the ships in the har- 
bor are denned in startling clearness. 

"The winter months about the bay are really a 
curious union of autumn with spring. Winter is over- 
looked in the rushing together of the dying and new- 
born year. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing 
and a thrill of life passes over land and sea. 

" At this season the bay is crowded with hosts of 
birds. Ducks and scoters swim about off shore. 
Murres and cormorants, grebes and loons dive and 
sport to their hearts' content. It is the gulls, however, 
that attract the greatest attention of passengers on the 
ferry boats. They follow the boats back and forth, 
picking up food thrown overboard from the cook's 
galley and darting after bread tossed them from the 
deck by interested spectators. Feeding the gulls has 
become a favorite amusement, and a pretty sight it is 
to see them poise in readiness and swoop upon the 
morsel of bread, catching it in mid air. So tame do 



392 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

they become that I have known them to take bread 
from the outstretched hand of a man. 

" With this winter view of the bay, let us leave it 
to inspect more closely the great mart upon its shore. 
Hills of green and blue lie afar off. Mount Diablo, 
one of the commanding peaks of the Coast Moun- 
tains, lifts its head back of the Berkeley Range. A 
brown streak on the blue water of the bay marks the 
course of the Sacramento River, flooded by the winter 
rains. The islands are beautifully green; ships have 
spread their clouds of canvas to dry after the storm; 
back and forth the eye ranges over miles of varied 
scenery, all colored with a palette that only a Cali- 
fornia winter furnishes. The great ferry boat glides 
into its slip and we follow the crowd off the upper 
deck into the magnificent nave of the Ferry Building 
and down the broad stone stairway to the city street. ,, 

Through this Golden Gate will go in the near future 
a stream of the rich and varied products of the great 
western states. Into that peaceful harbor which could 
float the ships of all the world will come the treasure 
of the Orient. But whatever material success may 
come to the San Francisco of the future it will never 
be rich enough nor splendid enough to outshine the 
natural grandeur with which nature has endowed the 
Bay of San Francisco. 



CHAPTER XXII 

GOLDEN GATE PARK 

Chief Pride and Joy of San Francisco — Built on Sand 
Dunes — Grand Pleasure Ground for the People — 
Beautiful Trees and Flowers, Conservatories, Avia- 
ries, Japanese Garden, Museum and Music Stand — 
Great Celtic Cross — Cliff House and Sutro Baths. 

Perhaps the chief pride and joy of San Francisco is 
Golden Gate Park, the beautiful pleasure ground that 
for days and weeks after the earthquake was the camp- 
ing ground of thousands of the city's homeless people. 
It is about three miles from the center of the city and 
contains 1,013 acres, valued at $11,000,000. Plans had 
been made to extend the park's " panhandle " down to 
Van Ness Avenue, within two blocks of the City Hall 
and through a thickly built-up residence district. 

The park, including the " panhandle," is over four 
miles long. When it was provided for by legislative 
act in 1870, the site consisted for the most part of bar- 
ren sand dunes. The wind was constantly changing 
these sand ridges, but lupin was planted by tens of 
thousands, and a special grass was imported, and thus 
the shifting of the sand was stayed. Then drives were 
laid out and macadamized, trees, shrubs and flowers 
planted, lawns laid down, and now, after but thirty- 
five years, the sand dunes have become a park whose 

293 



294 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

rare beauty is the astonishment of all visitors, and 
whose fame has gone into every land. 

A drive or walk through the park brings new beau- 
ties to view with every turn of the road or path. Here 
a lake dimples amid its overhanging foliage; there a 
herd of bison or deer is started from its grazing. Now 
a company of happy children is seen laughing about 
numerous games, and again a fashionable throng 
watches a spirited game of polo, or listens to the music 
of a fine band. Youths are seen playing baseball, or 
football; gay equipages go tooling by, or a string of 
bicyclists winds in and out along the path reserved for 
the riders. A cascade plashes and dances over the 
rocks in its course down Strawberry Hill and into 
Stow Lake. A great cross rears itself from an emi- 
nence to celebrate the first religious services on the 
coast in the English tongue, held by the daredevil mari- 
ners of Sir Francis Drake. Peacocks and pheasants 
strut or flit about, the quail call from the hills, rabbits 
flee along the shaded walks, and the visitor feels that 
in the midst of all the beauty he is very near to nature's 
heart. 

Near the Stanyan Street entrance is the stone lodge 
of the Park Commissioners, who have the park in 
charge, and spend the fund raised by taxation each 
year for park purposes. 

Not far away is a dainty little bit of water, called 
Lake Alvord, with a plashing fountain and numerous 
waterfowl. A little beyond is the play-ground of the 
children, with a brown sandstone building, where a 
light luncheon can be had, a carrousel, many swings, 
and a lot of donkeys and goats for riding and driving. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 295 

About this place stretch wide lawns, on which the 
people are permitted to wander and gambol at will. 
In a large paddock, close by, are herds of deer and 
elk, and a giant grizzly sniffs lazily about the bars of 
his large enclosure. Ostriches poke their long necks 
over the fence of another paddock, and some distance 
beyond is a noble herd of buffalo, with the strangely 
horned moose. 

A conservatory, modeled after the royal conserv- 
atory at Kew, England, has a dome fifty-eight feet 
high, and contains many rare specimens of tropical 
plants, including a collection of orchids and some speci- 
mens of the Victoria Regia. Then there is an aviary, 
continually melodious with the songs of the birds, who 
do not seem like prisoners as they flit among its trees. 
Squirrels have a big cage to themselves, and the trees 
in it afford them their coveted hiding places for stores 
of winter nuts. 

Nothing more delicate can be imagined than the Jap- 
anese Garden, with its houses built like those on which 
Fujiama looks down. The gold-fish glint in the gar- 
den rills, and storks stand about in fine solemnity. 
Dwarfed trees half hide vases of rare Japanese ware. 
The richly carved gateway was built without the use 
of a nail. Dainty Japanese attendants are in waiting 
to serve tea and comfits, and the visitor seems suddenly 
transported from Occidental hurly-burly to Oriental 
calm. 

In the Museum, a building of Egyptian architecture, 
which is a reminder of the Midwinter Fair of 1894-95, 
something more than a start has been made on what 
will some day be a great collection of works of art and 



296 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

rare curios. This Museum was presented to the Park 
Commissioners by the Midwinter Fair Directors, and 
much of the collection was purchased by the net pro- 
ceeds of that fair. Private contributions continually 
add to the attractiveness of the exhibit. 

In the park is some good statuary, notably the Fran- 
cis Scott Key monument, by W. W. Story; the Base- 
ball Pitcher, by Douglas Tilden, and the monuments 
to General Grant, President Garfield, Thomas Starr 
King, and General Halleck. Claus Spreckels has do- 
nated a beautifully designed and sculptured stone music 
stand to the park, where the band concerts are given 
every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. There is an 
interesting tree exhibit, in Concert Valley. On Octo- 
ber 19, 1896, commemorating the surrender of Corn- 
wallis at Yorktown, there was planted in a bended bow, 
450 feet in length, a tree from each of the original thir- 
teen States. New Hampshire is represented by a 
maple; Massachusetts, an elm; Delaware, a red maple; 
Pennsylvania, a cedar (from entrenchment at Valley 
Forge); Georgia, a catalpa; Virginia, a tree from the 
grave of Thomas Jefferson; Connecticut, an oak; New 
Jersey, a linden (from Washington's Headquarters) ; 
Rhode Island, chestnut; New York, white oak. The 
exercises were under the auspices of Sequoia Chapter 
of the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

Strawberry Hill, capped by an observatory, looms on 
the view from every portion of the park. Its top is 
426 feet above sea-level, a wide driveway winds about 
it to the summit, and its base is circled by Stow Lake, 
the artificiality of the construction of which has long 
ago been hidden by nature's kindliness. Into the lake 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 297 

dashes the water of Huntington Falls, where again all 
sense of the artificial has been washed away. The lake 
is spanned by picturesque bridges, skirted by a drive, 
and the two miles of sheltered water furnish a fine 
place for boating. 

Prayer-book Cross, on an adjoining eminence, was 
the gift of George W. Childs, the Philadelphia philan- 
thropist, and was erected under the auspices of the 
Episcopal diocese of northern California, to commem- 
orate the day, June 24, 1579, when Sir Francis Drake 
and his bold adventurers landed in Drake's bay, within 
sight of the cross, and celebrated the service of the 
English Church. The design is a copy of the ancient 
Celtic cross at Monasterboic, and the top of the cap- 
stone is forty feet from the ground. And now the 
Pacific ocean breaks upon the view with its countless 
waves stretching to strange, far lands. Here the park 
finds a fitting boundary. There is a fine hard beach 
along which has been constructed a wide boulevard, 
where the sound of the breakers is continually in the 
ear. 

Turning to the right and passing a steel pier whence 
the sea water is pumped into the city for the bathing 
pavilions, the visitor comes upon the Cliff House — a 
hostelry which hangs right over the ocean's surges, 
and looks down upon the Seal Rocks, where bask and 
bark hundreds of great sea-lions. 

Many of the world's great men and women have vis- 
ited this famous resort. From it there is a fine view 
of Point Bonita and the North Heads, Point Reyes, 
far to the northward, Point San Pedro to the south, 
and in clear weather the Farallones de los Freyres (the 



298 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Lighthouses of the Brothers) — a little group of six 
precipitous rocks twenty-six miles out to sea, where 
the sea birds nest and breed and the sea-lions keep up 
an incessant roar. The largest of this island group 
is nearly a mile across and rises 348 feet, with a light- 
house on top of it. The sea waves surging into a cave 
are made to keep a fog horn in constant moan. The 
eggs of the sea birds add variety to the city's well- 
stocked markets. 

The Cliff House itself is on the extreme tip of Point 
Lobos, which forms the south head of San Francisco 
Harbor. People sit for hours looking out from its 
rooms and verandas at the ever-changing picture of 
the sea. The original Cliff House was built in 1863. 
On July 14, 1886, the schooner Parallel, carrying 80,- 
000 pounds of dynamite, was wrecked on the near-by 
rocks, and the explosion of the dynamite badly dam- 
aged the old hostelry. Then on December 25, 1894, 
fire wiped out the ancient landmark. The present 
chateau-like structure was built by the late Adolph 
Sutro, whose home and grounds on the bluffs above 
were always open to visitors, and are known as Sutro 
Heights. 

Near at hand are the Sutro Baths, the most superb 
of all such establishments. Within are galleries in 
which a very good collection of curios peeps from 
amidst palms and tropic plants. About the swimming 
tanks are arranged like an amphitheater seats for the 
accommodation of 7,400 persons. There are 517 pri- 
vate dressing-rooms and numerous club and family 
apartments. The structure is 500 feet long and 254 
feet wide, and the bathing tanks hold 1,805,000 gallons 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASlER 299 

of water, thrown directly into them by the ocean's 
waves. In the largest tank, 300 by 175 feet, the water 
is kept just at the temperature it comes from the sea, 
while in other tanks it is heated to suit varying tastes. 

In abrupt contrast to Golden Gate Park, with all its 
art and beauty, but no less interesting to the visitor. 
was the " Barbary Coast," a bit of San Francisco that 
was for the most part destroyed by the catastrophe and 
will have no place in the rebuilt city. Here is a good 
description of this picturesque region as it was prior 
to the earthquake: 

" A group of sailor men stood in the doorway of an 
outfitting store, talking in loud thick voices. ' You're 
just a good-for-nothing coot/ cried one brawny fisted 
sea dog to a companion disappearing around the cor- 
ner. The dim lights shone feebly down the dark street. 
Arc lamps on the docks illuminated the rigging of 
the many masts along shore. On the window of a 
saloony-looking restaurant was painted ' Sanguinetti's/ 
and three Bohemians doing the Barbary Coast en- 
tered. The master of ceremonies stood behind his 
counter — red-faced, bullet-headed, bull-necked, with 
one eye gone and the other betwixt a leer and a 
twinkle. He was in his shirt sleeves with a sort of 
apron tucked about his ample form. Two darkies 
strummed a banjo and guitar, singing the while hila- 
rious coon songs. We stepped noiselessly over the 
sawdust floor to a table at one side and ordered clam 
chowder, spaghetti, chicken with garlic sauce, and 
rum omelette, with Italian entrees and a bottle of water- 
front claret for good cheer. 

" A buxom middle-aged lass of heroic build was so 



300 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

affected by the strenuous twanging of Old Black Joe 
that she got up and danced. Everybody joined in 
the songs; everybody talked to his or her neighbors, 
sans ceremony. There was an ex-policeman present 
with his best girl, the captain of a bay schooner, a ten- 
derloin politician or two, and several misses who 
scarcely looked like school marms as they warbled coon 
songs and sipped maraschino. 

" After dining, we dropped into f Lucchetti's ' next 
door, where it is the custom to lead your partner 
through the mazes of the waltz when dinner is over 
and before going uptown to see the marionette show. 
One feels safer on the streets of this quarter at night 
when he elbows a good companion. No doubt there 
is no danger, but stories of sand-baggers, and of board- 
ing masters armed with hose pipe and knock-out drops 
for shanghaiing luckless wayfarers and smuggling 
them off to some deep-water ship outward bound, will 
crop up in the mind of the lonely pedestrian. 

" By day, the waterfront is a scene of romantic in- 
terest. Every weatherbeaten vagabond who walks the 
street is itching to tell you stories of the ends of the 
earth. Every grimy grog shop has its quota of yarn 
spinners who like nothing better than an excuse to 
talk and tipple from morn to dewy eve. Go where 
you will along those miles of docks, an endless rim of 
shipping reminds you of the lands across the sea; and 
every wedding guest is in the clutches of some ancient 
mariner. 

" Schooners with five masts all of a size, and with 
scanty upper rigging, are discharging pine from Puget 
Sound. English steel ships deep laden with coal from 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 303 

Wellington lie alongside the wharves. Yonder is a 
clumsy old square Sacramento River steamer with stern 
paddle wheel and double smokestacks. A rakish brig 
from the South Sea Islands crowds up alongside of a 
stumpy little green flat bottom sloop which plies on 
the bay. 

" Sparrows chatter on the dusty wharf and scarcely 
budge for the heavy dray, drawn by ponderous Nor- 
man horses that shake the planks beneath them as 
they thunder along. Donkey engines rattle and clat- 
ter at unloading coal into cars on bridges leading 
across the street to the huge grimy coal store-houses. 
Teamsters pass with big lumber trucks and wagons 
loaded with sacks of grain. A group of heavy-set, 
stolid coal passers shuffles by. Idle beach combers 
and wharf rats with sooty faces lounge on lumber piles 
and stare vacantly at the scene. 

" A vista through the shipping shows the steely blue 
water of the bay with a lavender-gray background of 
fog. There is a medley of schooners, scows, tenders 
and tugs along shore and a black, three-skysail Yan- 
kee clipper ship, the queen of them all, anchored out 
in the stream. A whirl of sawdust comes with the 
salt breeze; a tug toots as it passes, dock engines gasp 
and pant, vans rumble past, and thus commerce thrives 
on the grit of the waterfront. 

" Great grim steamers lie in narrow berths loading 
or discharging — the tramp from Liverpool, a Panama 
liner, monster boats for South America, a big black 
Australian mail ship and others for China or Japan. 
White transports with buff funnels striped with red, 
white and blue, tell of the Philippines. A steamer is 



304 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

just in from Nome with returning miners, and another 
is billed to sail in the afternoon for the inside passage 
to Alaska. 

" The most picturesque spot on the waterfront is 
Fisherman's Wharf. Here the Greek fishers moor 
their little decked boats rigged with graceful lateen 
sails. One must be up betimes to see them to advan- 
tage, for the fisher folk are early birds. Their brown 
three-cornered sails may be seen dotting the bay at all 
hours, but the return of the fleet at sundown, like a 
flock of sea birds scudding on the wind to their roost, 
throws the spell of the Mediterranean over this far 
western haven. Although some years have elapsed, I 
still have vivid recollection of a conference at five in 
the morning with a captain and crew of one of these 
boats. The men were boozy and sleepy as we talked, 
in the little waterfront saloon, of our prospective trip, 
to the Farallones, and they appeared so stupid that we 
had grave doubts concerning their ability to navigate 
a boat. We found the long double wharf crowded 
with perhaps a hundred fishing boats, pointed stem 
and stern, decked, and with their long cross booms on 
the masts making an unusual effect. A few bronzed 
fishermen in blue shirts, rubber hip boots, and bright 
sashes, were at work at the first peep of the sun, wash- 
ing and hauling in a seine to dry or cleaning off the 
decks of their boats. The men proved to be skilled 
sailors despite the bad water-front whisky, and at the 
turn of the tide we sped away under a brisk head wind, 
bound out through the Golden Gate." 



CHAPTER XXIII 

CITY OF BEAUTIFUL SUBURBS 

Country Around San Francisco Like a Great Garden, 
Dotted With Charming Towns — Lovely Hills and 
Valleys of San Mateo County — Magnificent View 
From Mt. Tamalpais, the Watch Tower of the Pa- 
cific — Oakland the Prosperous and Berkeley the 
Fascinating. 

All about San Francisco, north, south and east, lies 
a country that is like a great park and garden, and 
that is studded with beautiful towns, many of which 
suffered severely from the earthquake. A writer, be- 
fore the catastrophe, described some of this country 
as follows: 

" Occupying as it does the end of a peninsula flanked 
by ocean and bay, San Francisco has but one direction 
for expansion, but one outlet by land — to the south- 
ward. Here extend the hills and valleys of San Mateo 
County with well-kept farms and prosperous villages 
and towns. Here is Burlingame, where so many San 
Franciscans of wealth and taste have built country 
homes, adding to the charm of nature the arts of the 
architect and landscape gardener. There are miles of 
level park-like valley land here where graceful, wide- 
spreading oaks beautify the plain, revealing between 
their masses of verdure vistas of blue mountain ranges. 
In the canons of these mountains, and even up on some 

305 



306 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of the heights where the salt breeze and fog drift in 
from the sea, are superb forests of redwood. I recall 
with peculiar delight the stage ride over the mountains 
from Redwood City to La Honda, down into the deep 
dark glade where the solemn shafts of the forest rise 
like worshipers of the light. 

" In the warm valleys of San Mateo County, shel- 
tered from the ocean wind, are the market gardens for 
supplying San Francisco with vegetables, and flower 
gardens for providing the wealth of bloom and fra- 
grance which makes the city florist shops the delight 
of all who enter or even pass their doors. The Crys- 
tal Springs Lakes and San Andreas reservoir in the 
mountains of this district are the sources of San Fran- 
cisco's water supply, enough, with other available 
springs, to furnish water to a million people. 

" In one of the broad sheltered valleys of this Ji^au- 
tiful country of oaks and vineyards lies the Stanford 
University. The inspiring example of a multi- 
millionaire devoting his entire fortune to founding a 
university in memory of his only son, and the subse- 
quent devotion of his widow in carrying out in every 
detail the wishes of its founder, has made the Uni- 
versity world famous. Its beautiful Spanish archi- 
tecture, fitting so well the site, with groups of low, 
tile-roofed buildings around an inner and outer quad- 
rangle, has done much to create an atmosphere for the 
University, and its president, David Starr Jordan, has 
shaped its work on broad and noble lines. From an 
initial class of four hundred and sixty-five students, 
the attendance has grown in ten years to thirteen hun- 
dred. The presence of two great universities within 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 307 

a radius of thirty miles of San Francisco, with distinct- 
ive ideals, with strong individual presidents, the one 
emphasizing the scientific spirit of investigation, the 
other the Greek spirit of culture, but both broad and 
liberal in their views, is one of the great influences, 
nay rather the great influence in shaping the future of 
San Francisco. The rivalry in football and athletics, in 
oratory and scholarship, between the two universities, 
keeps both on their mettle. Each helps the other, and 
both work for what is highest and best in the life of 
the State. 

" From Stanford University and the academic town 
of Palo Alto close to it, a ride of a few miles on the 
train takes the traveler to San Jose at the head of San 
Francisco Bay. This city is fifth in population in 
California, and is noted for its park-like streets shaded 
by spreading foliage trees or ornamented with rows 
of palms, its many substantial buildings and general 
air of prosperity and thrift. It may well appear so 
with the great fruit country that surrounds it, where 
some of the finest prune orchards of the State are to 
be found, as well as acres and miles of other varied 
deciduous fruits, all cultivated to the last degree of 
perfection. 

" A daily stage connects San Jose with the Lick 
Observatory on Mount Hamilton, where, with the aid 
of the second most powerful telescope in the world, a 
small band of devoted astronomers have made some of 
the most important discoveries of modern times in the 
investigation of the heavens. Work of far-reaching 
importance has been done here on the finding and ob- 
serving of double stars, on photographing nebulae, in 



308 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

spectroscopic astronomy, the detection of comets, and 
in many other fields of research. The stage ride of 
twenty-seven miles to the observatory is over a typical 
section of the Coast Mountains, the view ever enlarg- 
ing until the topmost point is reached with its almost 
unparalleled expansiveness of outlook. The whole 
snowy range of the Sierras extends far off across the 
broad plains of the Sacramento and San Joaquin. 
Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais lie to the north, 
and past Loma Prieta to the southward the ranges of 
southern Monterey County are visible. San Fran- 
cisco Bay, the fertile Santa Clara Valley with its set- 
tlements, its orchards and cultivated fields, and many 
near canons and wrinkled hills are below us. What 
sunsets one may view from this vantage point, followed 
by a peep at some planet through the great glass, and 
glimpses of that illimitable star world so wonderfully 
revealed! Then there is the night stage ride down 
the mountain, bowling around curves at a lively trot, 
and descending into the darkness and solitude of the 
canons ! 

" I think of Mount Hamilton during the lovely weeks 
of spring-time when baby-eyes gladdened the slopes, 
when shooting stars and scarlet larkspurs and lupines 
were waving in great masses of radiant bloom, when the 
birds were singing and courting, and the lonely moun- 
tain where man holds communion with the stars, 
thrilled with that loving touch of nature which makes 
all the world akin." 

Of the country to the north, about Mt. Tamalpais, 
the same writer says: 

' The whole Marin County peninsula is a great natu- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 309 

ral park with villages and pastoral country inter- 
spersed. Would that it might be reserved as such for 
all time! In its sheltered valleys grow the noble red- 
woods, the sublimest of forest trees save only their 
compeers of the Sierras. In the secluded Redwood 
Canon they still stand in their pristine glory — stately 
shafts of majestic proportion lifting high their ever- 
green foliage. Mill Valley shelters much charming 
second growth redwood where simple cottages nestle 
amid the trees. Most unique of these are the Japanese 
houses built by Mr. George T. Marsh. 

" From this point the mountain railroad zigzags up 
Mount Tamalpais. After leaving the shade of the 
redwood and the fragrant laurel dells, it turns and 
twists up the mountain side, coiling in a double bow 
knot, curving and winding along ledges in search of 
a uniform grade. The view broadens below — first the 
bay with indentations and peninsulas, islands and dis- 
tant hills. The city comes in view across the Golden 
Gate, and presently the ocean is sighted. As the stout 
little oil engine pushes up still higher, we see the twin 
peaks of Mount Diablo looming up nobly to the east- 
ward back of the Berkeley Hills. Far to the south- 
east swells Mt. Hamilton on a high ridge, where the 
great eye of the world watches silently the other 
spheres. To the northward, fifty miles away, we see 
Mount St. Helena grimly rising. The train takes us 
to the comfortable Tamalpais Tavern, from which 
point the summit is distant but a ten minutes' walk. 
The wind rushes wildly over the ridge. At our feet 
stretches the ocean, with the Farallone Islands seem- 
ingly close at hand. Turning we look down on the 



310 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

broad expanse of the bay, on hills and mountains, towns 
and cities. This varied view of land and sea, compass- 
ing a hundred miles of the most diversified landscape 
of California, must be seen many times to be thor- 
oughly appreciated. Sunrise over the San Joaquin 
Valley; the red orb dipping down into the fiery band 
on the ocean; moolight, and the witchery of the fog, 
when the beholder sits like an eagle on his crag and 
sees the tumultuous cloud-floor spread below — all 
these are but passing phases of the splendors of nature 
which may be seen from this great watch tower of the 
Pacific. 

" At the foot of the mountain, nestling amid the 
valleys or in cosy nooks on the bay shore, are many 
charming suburbs of San Francisco. San Rafael is 
the largest of these and is frequented by/ many people 
of wealth as well as by a numerous population of mod- 
erate means. Sausalito, on the shore, is a meeting 
place for yachtsmen, while Belvedere is famed for its 
night water carnivals. Both towns have many pic- 
turesque houses on hillsides overlooking the bay. A 
half-hour's ride on the ferry takes the suburbanite 
from San Francisco to his home. There he may enjoy 
nature, forgetting the cares of business and the stress 
and strain of the city, calmed by the expansive view 
of bay and distant hills, and enlarged in spirit by com- 
munion with the beauties far spread at his feet. ,, 
Turning to the eastern shore, he writes: 
" Oakland, with its estuary for deep-water shipping, 
with ship yards for the building and repairing of ves- 
sels, and every facility for the immediate transfer of 
freight from ship to car, is peculiarly well located as 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 311 

a commercial center. Two long piers, or ' moles ' as 
they are called, reach out into the bay to carry South- 
ern Pacific overland and local trains as near as possible 
to San Francisco, and a third pier is now nearly com- 
pleted for the electric car service of the Santa Fe. 
Alameda County, of which Oakland is the metropolis, 
is one of the most productive districts of the State. It 
is famed for its vineyards, its hop fields and orchards. 
Indeed, all fruits and vegetables thrive in its equable 
climate. The project of tunneling the hills back of 
Fruitvale, thus affording easy access to the sheltered 
valleys beyond the Coast Range, is now nearing con- 
summation, and will become an important factor in 
the city's development. Already Oakland is the third 
city in the State in population, its inhabitants number- 
ing about seventy thousand. It has many charming 
residences tucked away amid semi-tropic gardens, the 
district about Lake Merritt being especially noted for 
its substantial homes. 

" Alameda, with over sixteen thousand inhabitants, 
lies to the south of Oakland on the low land, which, by 
the recent cutting of the tidal canal, has been con- 
verted into an island. Its well-kept macadamized 
streets and many fine homes embowered in shrubbery 
and vines, make it a favorite residence town for an 
increasing number of people who do business in San 
Francisco. Alameda is a headquarters for the yacht- 
men and canoeists of the eastern shore, while its salt- 
water baths are an attraction to those fond of aquatic 
sports. 

"Berkeley lies upon the hills opposite the Golden 
Gate. Its homes command the whole glorious sweep 



312 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of bay and shore. Tamalpais rears its finely chiseled 
profile to the right of the Gate, and San Francisco on 
its many hills lies to the left. The selection of this 
site for a State University was an inspiration on the 
part of its founders. Just where a beautiful canon in 
the Berkeley hills descends to the plain, with classic 
laurels fringing its upper slopes, and the patriarch live- 
oaks sanctifying its lower levels with their gnarled 
gray trunks and dark canopies of verdure, upon the 
gently rising slope which leads up from the bay shore 
some two miles distant, a tract of two hundred and 
eighty-five acres has been set apart for the University 
of California. The Berkeley Hills rise abruptly back 
of it to the crest of Grizzly Peak, some fifteen hundred 
feet high, and upon the three lower sides^of the grounds 
extends the town. 

"Wherein lies the charm of Berkeley? Is it in the 
vine-covered cottages and profusion of flowers which 
at the height of the season make the town seem decked 
for a carnival? Is it in the glorious prospect of rolling 
mountains and far-spread bay? Or is it the people, 
drawn from near and far by that great magnet, the 
University? We old-timers complain that the town is 
getting crowded and no longer has the rural tone of 
a few years ago. But what matter? Ceaselessly the 
houses go up, new ones springing into existence on 
every hand, and the only consolation is that on the 
whole the architecture is steadily becoming simpler 
and better. There is probably no other spot in Cali- 
fornia where so many really artistic homes are assem- 
bled. For those who like the sort of people attracted 
by a great institution of learning, no society could be 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 313 

more delightful than is to be found here. People are 
flocking to Berkeley not only from various parts of 
California, but from many sections of the East. They 
hear of its wonderful climate, softer than San Fran- 
cisco, but favorable for work all the year round, the 
most truly temperate climate imaginable. They hear 
of its homes, its people and its accessibility to the great 
city. They come to educate their children at the Uni- 
versity and once here never leave save by compul- 
sion." 



CHAPTER XXIV 

WHY SAN FRANCISCO IS GREAT 

Story of the City's Awakening to New Life and Pros- 
perity After the Spanish War — Gateway to the Ori- 
ent — What the Acquisition of the Philippines and 
Opening of China Mean to It — Metropolis of a Mar- 
velously Rich but Strangely Isolated Country — 
Natural Resources and Climate Unsurpassed. 

San Francisco was struck down just in the period 
of the greatest prosperity it had ever known. After 
some years of dullness the city had awakened to new 
efforts, new growth and a rapidly increasing com- 
merce. This revivification was due to several causes 
— the completion of certain railroads, the opening of 
the Alaska gold fields, and especially the Spanish war 
and the acquisition of the Philippines. The awaken- 
ing of the Pacific Coast metropolis is thus described by 
an accomplished writer: 

" During a good part of the decade immediately pre- 
ceding the dawn of the new century, a strange lethargy 
seemed to have settled upon the city by the Golden 
Gate. To the northward, Seattle and Spokane were 
forging ahead with giant strides. To the southward, 
Los Angeles had grown from a pueblo to a metropolis. 
In San Francisco, public spirit was at a perilously low 
ebb. Of local pride there was but the faintest glim- 
mer. Population was at a standstill; houses were for 

314 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 315 

rent. Merchants took what trade came their way, but 
seldom reached out for more. Staggered by the crash 
of '93, the city seemed unable to recuperate, or made 
a recovery so slow that people shook their heads and 
spoke disparagingly of the place. 

"What was the matter with San Francisco? Why 
did it rest supinely upon its many hills and let the 
world take its own course? The railroad was com- 
monly blamed for all the evils arising from the differ- 
ence and indifference of public opinion on local ques- 
tions. The Octopus, as that Quixotic champion of 
the city's rights, Mayor Sutro, dubbed it, was indeed 
a power with tentacles far spread over the State, and 
permeating many branches of civic life. But there 
were other factors which retarded the growth of San 
Francisco, chief among which was the lack of public 
spirit among the citizens. 

" It is a more agreeable field of speculation to note 
the forces which have been instrumental in changing 
all this — for a change has indeed come over the com- 
munity. One of the earliest symptoms of an awak- 
ened civic pride was the action of the Merchants' Asso- 
ciation in reforming the work of cleaning the streets of 
the business district. At about this time a ripple of 
enthusiasm was caused by the completion of the San 
Joaquin Valley Road and its absorption by the Santa 
Fe System, which insured a competing overland line 
to San Francisco. Events for arousing the city 
crowded thick and fast about the end of the century. 
The Klondike gold excitement stimulated trade and 
travel with the North. 

" Years before Dewey's guns thundered at the gates 



316 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of Manila, far-sighted men had predicted that the strife 
for commercial supremacy was destined to shift ere 
long from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but their prophe- 
cies had fallen upon deaf ears. The Eastern States 
took little note of Pacific Coast events, save to chron- 
icle a prize fight or a sensational murder. But when 
regiments of soldiers came pouring into San Francisco 
on their way to the Philippines, the attention of the 
nation was centered here. It began to dawn upon 
men, both at home and abroad, that this was the port 
of departure not merely for the Spanish Islands of the 
Pacific, but also for the Orient beyond. The strategic 
importance of San Francisco wa# impressed upon the 
dullest minds. Complications in China requiring the 
presence of American troops there, served but to deepen 
this realization. The moving of an army of seventy 
thousand men to and from these remote regions, the 
presence of fleets of transports in the harbor, the stimu- 
lus of trade in new channels, all served to rouse the 
dormant city. 

" Simultaneously with these stirring events came the 
reorganization of the Southern Pacific Railroad. As 
a part of the great Flarriman System, a policy of co- 
operation with the people in the building up of the 
State has been vigorously pushed. It is now apparent 
on every hand that the interests of the railroad and of 
the people are one. If the arteries of commerce are 
obstructed, will not the tissues of the State wither? 
Or conversely, if the body politic be not sound and 
strong, will it not inevitably impair the circulation of 
trade? To grasp this fundamental proposition of the 
organic connection between the people and the avenues 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 317 

of commerce, and to work to make this relationship 
a just and harmonious one on both sides, is the first 
essential to the prosperity of a country. Especially 
is this so of a region which from its vast isolation is 
dependent upon commercial relations with remote 
parts of the land. The importance of this new spirit 
cannot be overestimated in an analysis of the factors 
which are now at work in rejuvenating San Francisco. 
The withered staff of Tannhauser has burst into leaf, 
and the dead past shall bury its dead. 

" The new charter of San Francisco is constructed 
on the most advanced ideas of municipal government, 
and already great benefits are coming to the city from 
its operation. Since its adoption, large sums of money 
have been appropriated for extending the park system 
and for much needed additional school buildings. San 
Francisco occupies the proud position of a municipality 
practically without civic debt. 

"In the prosperity which has come with the new 
century, San Francisco has shared to the fullest meas- 
ure. Capital has been attracted from various parts 
of the country. The street railways were purchased 
by a Baltimore corporation and their relationship with 
the Southern Pacific Railroad terminated. New build- 
ings were commenced in various parts of the city — 
great substantial steel-frame structures of stone and 
terra cotta. Whole blocks of these dignified, well pro- 
portioned buildings are going up on Mission Street, 
replacing shabby rookeries; the splendid new Mutual 
Bank Building of gray stone and steep red tile roof, 
towers up with the other fine structures at the corner 
of Market and Geary Streets. Facing Union Square, 



318 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

a block away from the big modern building of the 
Spring Valley Water Company, the steel frame of the 
new Saint Francis Hotel is climbing higher and higher, 
and the stonework follows with wonderful celerity. 
Over on Market Street at the corner of Powell, on the 
site of the old Baldwin Hotel, and opposite the great 
stone Emporium, one of the largest and costliest build- 
ings of the city is now being erected for store and office 
purposes. 

" Just in the nick of time, the magnificent new mar- 
ble postoffice is being completed up on Mission Street 
to replace the miserable structure down on Washing- 
ton Street which for so many yfears has served as a 
makeshift. A magnificent hotel is to be built imme- 
diately by the Fair estate on the California Street 
heights. These are but a few of the more striking 
business buildings now being pushed to completion. 
In one week, according to statistics compiled, six mil- 
lion dollars' worth of buildings were commenced in 
the city. A gratifying feature of the work is the sim- 
plicity of design followed in nearly every instance. 
Costly materials and the most perfect of modern work- 
manship, combined with good proportions on broad 
lines, are bound to make the new San Francisco an 
eminently satisfying city architecturally. 

" All this building is not the result of a speculative 
boom, but the response to a real demand for more ac- 
commodation. People are coming to San Francisco 
from hither and yon, to settle in the community. New 
business enterprises are being started, old ones en- 
larged. Vast sums are being expended upon railroad 
improvement of lines centering here, and immense 
















Map of the burnt district. The heavy shaded part shows the result of the first day' 
fire, the black line alter it had burnt for two days. 




AREAS OF THREE GREAT FIRES. 

Map showing the comparative size of burned districts in the San Francisco, 
Chicago and Baltimore conflagrations. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 321 

steamships are built or building for trade with this 
port. Since the days of '49 such an impetus of growth 
has not visited San Francisco. 

" That the city, and indeed all California, has awak- 
ened to the opportunities now arising, is shown by the 
recent organization of a Promotion Committee com- 
posed of representatives of the various commercial or- 
ganizations of the city and State. Strangers are made 
welcome at their comfortable headquarters on New 
Montgomery Street, and information relative to the 
resources of California is given to all who are inter- 
ested. 

" It is almost an axiom of civic life that the perma- 
nent well-being of a city depends upon the prosperity 
of its adjacent country. Never did any land have 
more to offer the home seeker than has California. 
The orange grows to perfection in valleys a hundred 
miles north of San Francisco, where it ripens by No- 
vember, a month earlier than in any other part of the 
United States. Figs thrive over an even wider area 
than the citrus fruits, and experiments recently made 
in shipping them fresh to Chicago and New York have 
proven a success. California olive oil commands a 
high price on account of its freedom from adulteration, 
and ripe olives are becoming a much relished food. 
The prunes of San Jose and the raisins of Fresno have 
acquired world-wide fame, while California wines com- 
pete successfully at international expositions with their 
French predecessors and rivals. The improved rail- 
road facilities have made it possible of late to ship 
early fresh vegetables, as well as all of the fresh fruits 
to the Eastern market. Indeed shipments to Europe 



322 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of fresh California fruit are now regularly made. 
With the railroad back of the people a limitless mar- 
ket will await the horticulturist, and his returns will 
be proportionate to his labor and skill. 

" Many inexperienced people have imagined that 
fruit growing in California was all attended to by na- 
ture. Young Englishmen have come here, lured by 
tales of prodigal fertility, and have smoked their pipes 
while their ranches went to perdition. Horticulture 
in California requires knowledge and hard work, much 
as anything does in this world that is worth doing. 
The best results are to be had on irrigated land, and 
small holdings are now proving more successful than 
the large ranches of the past, but patience, skill and 
grit are needed for the work. The passage by the 
American Congress of the Newlands Act has called the 
attention of the whole country to the possibilities of 
development in the West through irrigation. The 
lakes and streams of the Sierra Nevada Mountains 
contain enough water to make fertile all the cultivat- 
able valleys of the State, and it is now only a question 
of years before this will be done. The great wheat 
fields of the Sacramento and Son Joaquin Valleys, cul- 
tivated with gang plows and harvested with machines 
that do the whole process of cutting, threshing and 
sacking, are rivaled only by the vast prairies of the 
Mississippi. Another industry that is assuming large 
proportion is the manufacture of beet sugar, which is 
carried on in parts of California on an immense scale. 

" The old-fashioned placer mining — the washing of 
gold out of the sand of river beds with a rude wooden 
cradle — is no longer profitable as in the days of '49, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 323 

but during the past five years over fifteen million dol- 
lars annually has been mined by the improved meth- 
ods now in vogue, and there seems to be no dimin- 
ution of the supply. The great stamps of the Placer 
and Nevada County mines are thundering away at the 
ore, while dredges scoop up the sand of river bottoms 
and sift out the gold as it passes through. 

" In manufacturing lines, San Francisco has been 
greatly hampered by the lack of coal mines within 
convenient distance, although a firm like the Union 
Iron Works, which can build such battleships as the 
Oregon and the Ohio, need not take second place to 
any builders in the world. Up to the present time 
coal has been king; but in this as in other matters an 
era of change is at hand, and Old King Coal seems 
destined to take a back seat. His rival to the throne 
is none other than that modern Zeus, the wielder of 
thunderbolts, which we call the electric motor. For 
many years the use of water as a motive power has been 
out of date, but the present cycle of progress brings it 
once more to the front. Over the valleys and hills of 
California march silent processions of poles carrying 
heavy wires upon large insulators. The lightning is 
being harnessed to the waterfalls of the mountains, and 
the mysterious currents generated in the far away 
heights by the singing streams which pour their cur- 
rent down the rocky slopes, are flashed in a trice to 
populous centers, there to light houses and highways, 
to speed cars over city streets, and to turn the humming 
wheels of industry. In the days to come, manufactur- 
ing supremacy shall be determined not by coal mines 
but by waterfalls. California, with its glorious Sierra 



324 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

battlement where the snows pile high all winter long, 
melting in never-failing streams that swiftly course 
to the valleys, is above all other lands supplied with 
this natural motive power. The mountain streams 
shall labor now for man, and sing at their toil. Even 
into the great city shall penetrate their power, and the 
smoke and grime of coal shall be replaced by a mightier 
and cleanlier force. 

" Coincident with the perfecting of insulating ap- 
pliances, making it possible to carry electric currents 
from the mountains to the sea, has come the discovery 
and development of seemingly limitless oil wells in va- 
rious parts of California. The use of oil fuel as a sub- 
stitute for coal is meeting with the most gratifying suc- 
cess. Railway engines burn it and cinders become a 
thing of the past. It has been tested upon a large 
passenger steamer running between San Francisco and 
Tahiti, with the result that a saving of two hundred 
dollars a day is effected. Oil-burning freight steamers 
are plying between San Francisco and the Hawaiian 
Islands. The terrible work of the stokers is abolished 
and the decks are no longer grimy with cinders. 
Within a year all the engines of the Southern Pacific 
Railway will be converted into oil burners. Dusty 
country roadways when oiled become like park boule- 
vards. And thus electricity and oil are not only replac- 
ing coal but accomplishing far more than the old fuel 
could do. To be sure the transition has but begun, and 
vast quantities of coal must still be imported to San 
Francisco, but when ere long the oil pipe line is laid 
from Bakersfield to tide water, when J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan's new oil company, just organized with a capitali- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 325 

zation of twenty million dollars, is in operation, and 
the new San Francisco Electric Power Company has 
brought its lines from the mountains to the city, the 
demand for coal will surely not continue to increase in 
proportion to the growth of population or of manufac- 
turing industries. 

" One other great natural source of wealth Califor- 
nia possesses, namely her forests. But every true lover 
of the wildwood looks with dismay at the recklessness 
with which this treasure is being squandered. Nor is 
it by any means a sentimental motive which has actu- 
ated the protest against this ruin and waste. The fu- 
ture of California depends upon the conservation of its 
water supply. Without this the land will become a 
desert. The forests are the only power which can re- 
strain the impatient torrents from despoiling the land 
— from rushing down the mountains in freshets and 
tearing away the soil of the valleys. The forest roots 
restrain the floods, the arching branches retard the 
melting snows, and the bounty of heaven becomes a 
blessing instead of a menace to the valleys. Hence the 
wisdom of a great series of national parks in the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains. The hungry saws are ripping up 
the sublime redwood forests of the coast district — 
forests as beautiful and impressive as any in the world. 
One state park of thirty-eight hundred acres in the Big 
Basin of the Santa Cruz Mountains is already saved, 
but aside from this the entire stretch of redwood for- 
ests is at the mercy of the lumbermen. There should 
be a chain of such parks up the coast to the Oregon 
boundary, lest our children grow up to curse us for our 
sinful neglect of them. San Francisco, awakened, 



326 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

aroused, building, reaching out, must not be satisfied 
with accomplishing its own immediate ends, but must 
remember that it has children who are to inherit the 
work of its hands." 

Such was the status of San Francisco when it was 
shattered by earthquake and devastated by flame. 
Her fine buildings were ruined, her enormous business 
enterprises were checked — but only temporarily. But 
the city's commanding position as the gate-way to the 
Orient and its magnificent harbor remained unchanged 
as a basis for the new and greater city. This pre- 
eminence of its site was thus set forth by the writer 
quoted above: 

" San Francisco occupies the strategic post of the 
world commerce of the twentieth century. ( West- 
ward the course of empire takes its way ' was a 
prophecy which has already found fulfillment. The 
Pacific is the new theatre for the enacting of the drama 
of the nations. From time immemorial the world has 
been divided into the East and West, the former of 
hoar antiquity, conservative, profound, teeming with 
people, the latter ever young, ever new, following in 
the march of time, progressive, expanding, peopling 
new wildernesses, restlessly searching for new worlds 
of hand or brain to conquer. From time immemorial 
the West has thriven upon the commerce of the East. 
Phoenecia, Athens, Alexandria, Rome, Venice, Spain, 
Holland, England, each in turn has waxed fat and 
opulent on the commerce of the Orient. It was in 
the search for the Spice Islands that America was dis- 
covered. It was in the determined effort to find a 
more direct route between Europe and the Indies that 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 327 

most of the future exploration of America was pushed. 
It is with the same determination to sweep away every 
obstacle, however monumental, which separates the 
Occident from the Orient, that the United States has 
undertaken the prodigious task of building the Isth- 
mian Canal. 

" After all these centuries of effort, a great city has 
been reared upon the outposts of the western world 
with a free sweep of sea off yonder to China. The 
tidal wave of civilization has rolled around the globe. 
The West has reached its limit, and to go beyond 
means to cross the international date line into the East. 
So intent has San Francisco been upon the petty local 
problems which environed her that she is only now 
awakening from her lethargy to realize the pre-emi- 
nence of her position. Standing upon the rim of the 
western world, the Orient is before her. She com- 
mands the shortest route to the East, seldom blocked 
by winter storms, and commerce will always go that 
way. It is the law of following the line of least re- 
sistance. Even when the Isthmian Canal is finished, 
passengers, mail and all perishable freight will go by 
the quickest way, and the enforced reduction in rail- 
road rates will more than offset any loss of freight 
business to San Francisco. 

" The railroads are alive to their opportunities in 
overland traffic. They have so reduced the time that 
mail and passengers are now carried from ocean to 
ocean in a little less than four days. The terrors of the 
desert are set at naught by the triumphs of engineer- 
ing. Vast sums of money are today being applied to 
the improvement of road-beds, the straightening of 



328 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

curves, lowering of grades and modernizing of equip- 
ment on the transcontinental lines. Instead of the 
Northwest Passage, for which the mariners of old 
sought in vain, applied science has given us the over- 
land passage. So rapid has been the increase of freight 
business during the past year that the railroads are 
hard put to supply cars to handle it. The Sunset Lim- 
ited train runs daily now instead of twice a week, to 
accommodate the increasing travel. Other railroad 
lines are seeking entrance to San Francisco from the 
East. New steamship lines gre bringing hither the 
produce of many shores — of Alaska and South Amer- 
ica, Oceanica and Australasia, the Philippines, Japan 
and China. There were but three regular steamship 
lines plying between San Francisco and foreign ports 
in 1895 as against twelve lines today, and the foreign 
export business has grown from a tonnage of some- 
thing over fifteen million pounds in that year to over 
two hundred million pounds in 1901. Our merchants 
are filling orders for Siberia and New Zealand. Korea 
and South Africa are being brought within the scope 
of our commercial enterprise as well as the various 
countries of Europe. 

" The great triangle of the Pacific is destined to have 
its lines drawn between Hong Kong, Sydney and San 
Francisco. Of these three ports, Hong Kong will have 
China behind it, Sidney, Europe, and San Francisco, 
America; and with America for a backing, San Fran- 
cisco can challenge the world in the strife for com- 
mercial supremacy. In the midst of this great tri- 
angle lie Hawaii and the Philippines. From the days 
of Magellan's immortal voyage to the time of Dewey, 



[^^yiaste 




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i 



*f« 











THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 333 

the Spanish stronghold in the Pacific remained un- 
shaken save by internal dissensions. Today America 
is roused to a new charge, and if only the love of lib- 
erty which has so long thrilled the nation can remain 
the dominating spirit in our disposition of these popu- 
lous islands, we shall have a stronger hold upon the 
vantage ground on the outposts of the Orient than 
could ever be gained by force of arms. If we are 
bound to these people by ties of mutual interest, the 
islands will be to us a source of legitimate profit and 
a link in the chain of commerce with the Orient, but if 
we seek to rule them with a master hand, they will 
become a drain on our pockets and a potent factor in 
lowering our national tone. The future of San Fran- 
cisco is deeply concerned in this matter, and the pres- 
ent drift of events seems happily in the right direc- 
tion. 

" While San Francisco is thus indebted to its com- 
manding position as toll taker on the world's high- 
way, the city, in common with all California, is also 
favored by isolation. Between the snowy crests of the 
Sierra Nevada Mountains and the ocean, is a strip 
of land of extraordinary fertility. Here grow the larg- 
est forest trees of the world, the largest fruits, the most 
abundant crops. Water, in some parts of this region, 
must be artificially brought to the land, but irrigation 
is at once the oldest and the newest method of assuring 
a harvest. All ancient civilizations were in countries 
which depended upon artificially watered crops, and 
California is but another instance where history is re^ 
peating itself. 

" Beyond this garden, for hundreds of miles to the 



334 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

eastward stretches a desert, or, more properly speak- 
ing, an arid region of alkali plains and sage-brush hills 
which can probably never, support a dense population. 
Thus are we of the coast cut off from kinsmen of the 
East and Middle West. Trains may speed their fast- 
est with mail and freight. Books and magazines may 
come pouring in upon us in a deluge from New York 
and Boston, but the physical barrier remains. Cali- 
fornia, cosmopolitan though it be, thrilling with the 
same patriotic pride and enthusiasm as the East, is still 
intensely self reliant. It does not hang upon the opin- 
ions of Eastern oracles but makes its own standards. 
One has but to be inoculated with the California fever 
by a year's residence to become an enthusiastic victim 
for life. There is a largeness of horizon here un- 
known to the Easterner. City men go out on summer 
outings to climb lofty mountain peaks that would ap- 
pall a tenderfoot. The stern grandeur of the ocean 
shores and the vast horizon of Sierra peaks leave their 
impress upon the race that dwells in such an environ- 
ment. 

" Much has been said and written of the climate of 
California, but it still remains a fruitful theme. With- 
in the radius of a hundred miles are to be found all 
sorts of climate, save the greatest extremes of the 
tropics and Arctics. From the cool moist coast to the 
dry heat of the interior means but the crossing of a 
spur of the coast range. From the frostless lowlands 
to a region of heavier snowfall than is found elsewhere 
in the United States implies but the ascent by rail of 
the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the valleys, roses 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 335 

and oranges; in the mountains, snow-shoes and ice 
carnivals ! 

" The climate of San Francisco is uniform to a de- 
gree that is equalled in few regions. The summer 
fogs temper the heat and make July and August as 
comfortable as midwinter for work. The constant sea 
breeze that sweeps over the hills all summer long on 
its way to the hot interior valleys, carries away the 
germs of disease and makes San Francisco an excep- 
tionally healthful city. Frost is rare in midwinter and 
a flurry of snow falls only once in a few years, melt- 
ing almost ere it touches the ground. From June to 
October scarce a shower moistens the ground, but 
from November to May there are copious downpours, 
interspersed with some of the loveliest days of the year. 
The rainfall varies in amount from year to year, but 
it is always welcome, since the stormiest of winter 
weather means an ensuing summer of abundant crops. 
Last winter, with a rainfall of twenty-one inches, was 
an average season. 

" From my aerie amid the Berkeley Hills I look out 
through the Golden Gate and see stately ships and 
proud steamers coming and going; I can trace the long 
line of overland trains speeding along the bay shore; 
away yonder the city flecks the stubborn heights of 
San Francisco. The whole great pageant of com- 
merce is in view afar off on the blue and purple relief 
map of bay and mountains. The matchless gate of 
gold is there glowing in the sunset. Over on La 
Loma, but a stone's throw distant, stood Fremont when 
he named that ' road of passage and union between 
two hemispheres ' the Chrysopylae or Golden Gate. 



336 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

" Where could be found a more fitting highway for 
the world commerce to travel, where a more sublime 
portal whence the power and products of western civ- 
ilization should go forth to other shores of this vast 
Pacific, and the stored wealth, art and industries of the 
Orient be returned to enrich America? San Fran- 
cisco, founded by the Spanish padres who bore the 
cross to the scattered Indian tribes of the wilderness, 
invaded by a cosmopolitan horde from the four winds 
of the globe, flocking at the cry of gold, developed by 
American energy into the most important city of the 
Pacific shore, has now taken a new impetus of growth 
and has before it a more brilliant future than the most 
sanguine of its founders dared anticipate. May that 
largeness of public spirit, that breadth of view and 
that readiness to co-operate in all that is good, grow 
and develop until the community is able to fitly cope 
with this empire of the Pacific sea and shores and 
make it tribute to its genius ! " 



CHAPTER XXV 

VOLCANIC UPHEAVAL IN ITALY 

The Eruption of Vesuvius of April, 1906, Destructive 
to Life and Property — Calabrian Earthquakes Fore- 
shadow the Catastrophe — Panic Follows Outbreak — 
Beautiful Villages and Villas Menaced by Lava — 
Bosco Trecase Overwhelmed and Destroyed — Peo- 
ple Flee From the Destroyer in Terror — Pathetic 
Scenes Witnessed — Cone of Vesuvius Collapses — 
King Victor Emmanuel Visits Stricken District — 
The Monarch Greeted With Enthusiasm by Refu- 
gees — Two Hundred Square Miles of Territory Laid 
Waste — Graphic Account of the Disaster — Four 
Towns Annihilated — Appalling Loss of Life — Heroic 
Rescues — Prospects of the Future. 

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in April, 1906, at- 
tended as it was by great loss of life and tremendous 
damage to the villages and towns within reach of its 
withering breath, was one of the most violent on rec- 
ord. The volcano had been active for centuries fol- 
lowing _*e disaster of 79 A. D., when Pompeii and Her- 
culaneum were buried beneath the relentless flow of 
lava, mud and ashes, but it was reserved for the twen- 
tieth century to witness a gigantic upheaval which was 
to result in the loss of approximately 2,000 lives, the 
destruction of more than 5,000 homes, the devastation 

337 



338 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of ten towns and a property loss of not less than $10,- 
000,000. 

It was the Martinique disaster in 1902 that caused 
the Italian residents in the vicinity of Vesuvius to fear 
that the gigantic forces beneath them soon must as- 
sert themselves. In this they were not mistaken, for 
in the following year the belchings of the Titanic 
mountain became more and more menacing. The 
year passed without serious mishap, however, and the 
peasants tilled their farms, with many a prayer of 
thanksgiving to the saints for averting disaster when 
it appeared more than usually menacing. 

In 1905 Vesuvius again began to show uneasiness 
and in June of that year the Prefect of Naples deemed 
it advisable for the inhabitants of the villages cluster- 
ing on the slopes and at the base of the mountain, to 
leave their homes owing to the increased discharges 
of lava from the volcano. The people were reluctant 
to take this step and it was not until October, when 
300 villages were destroyed by earthquakes in the Prov- 
ince of Calabria, that new and more violent activity 
on the part of the mountain caused hundreds to flee to 
distant towns for safety. The seismic disturbance in 
Calabria and the muttering of Vesuvius apparently 
were in sympathy, and the gravest apprehensions of 
the future were felt on all sides. 

The disturbance, however, was only momentary — 
Vulcan's fires smoldered as they had for ages, but they 
had not been extinguished. It was on April 3rd when 
dense volumes of smoke, accompanied by an immense 
flow of lava that gushed in fiery cascades from the 
crater and swept as a resistless torrent down the moun- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 339 

tain side, excited intense alarm. The eruption in- 
creased in violence hourly and within the following 
three days, the people realized that a frightful disaster 
impended and the inevitable panic ensued. 

Mount Vesuvius, termed by some traveler, "a colos- 
sal brazier/' rears its top to a height of 4,000 feet above 
the level of the sea, and is about ten miles from Naples 
as the crow flies. It has a circumference of thirty 
miles and on this slope, reaching to the shores of the 
Bay of Naples, a score of pretty villages nestled. Up- 
on the grassy terraces above these towns, beautiful vil- 
las, the property of wealthy merchants and nobles, 
reared their marble fronts, and from the mullioned 
windows of which, rare views of the surrounding land- 
scape were to be had. The peaceful scene soon was 
destined to undergo a strange transformation and in- 
stead of charming villages, dreary wastes of hot lava 
were to greet the eye at every turn — and gaunt figures 
of death and desolation were to stalk forth to lay waste 
the land and plunge the people into the bitter darkness 
of grief and despair. 

On the south slope of the mountain stood Bosco 
Trecase, a town of 6,000 population. It was from this 
place that the ascents of Vesuvius usually were begun 
by tourists. Below it, at a distance of two miles, lies 
Torre dell Annunziata, a prosperous town of 15,000. 
It has a small harbor on the bay and does an annual 
business of considerable extent with the Mediterranean 
countries. To the eastward, and two and a half miles 
north of the ruins of Pompeii, was Bosco Reale, a vil- 
lage of 2,000 population. On the western slope, nearer 
to Naples, and resting on the bay shore, is Portici, the 



340 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

people of which are largely engaged in the fishing in- 
dustry. From the mole which extends into the bay 
for a considerable distance at this point, a magnificent 
view of the bay is to be obtained. Four miles from 
Portici, is Terre del Greco, a town of 30,000. The city 
stands on a lava stream which destroyed two-thirds of 
the older towns in 1631, has several good hotels and 
is the favorite winter resort and during the sea-bathing 
season it is annually visited by thousands of Italians 
of the better class. In addition to these cities and 
towns, there are scores of hamlets, many of which were 
later ruined by fire or buried beneath tons of ashes. 

On the morning of April 7th, the hidden forces in 
Vesuvius manifested themselves in irresistible form. 
For two days previously an enormous volume of smoke, 
rising to a height of two miles above the crater, had 
spread so that with its diameter of more than twenty 
miles, the light of the sun was obscured even in Naples. 
Incandescent masses of stone were thrown upward a 
distance of 3,000 feet, only to fall back into the crater 
or upon the mountain slope, where, plunging into the 
streams of red hot lava, they served to swell the fiery 
torrent that consumed all in its path. Accompanying 
the eruption were ashes, which, carried by a strong 
southeasterly wind, were wafted towards Naples, cov- 
ering that city and intervening towns as with a shroud 
of gray. 

Immense fissures opened far below the cone, from 
which lava, racing at white heat down the slope, and 
sulphurous fumes, the inhalation of which was death, 
escaped. One of these streams completely destroyed 
Bosco Trecase, engulfing its houses as so much waste 




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THE MEN AT THE HEAD OF THE RELIEF COMMITTEES. 

President Roosevelt, Mayor Schmitz of San Francisco, Mayor Dunne of 
Chicago. D. R. Forgan and J. E. Phelan of San Francisco, Treasurers. Mr. 
Phelan, although losing several millions by the calamity, contributed $1,000,000, 
the largest individual amount subscribed. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 343 

paper and destroying scores of persons who had lin- 
gered in the hope of saving their prized possessions 
from the insatiable destroyer. Another stream reached 
the outskirts of Torre del Greco, laying waste thou- 
sands of acres of farm land and destroying much stock 
and implements of husbandry. 

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of the threatened towns 
were fleeing to Naples in crowds, terror-stricken and 
despairing. Thousands of once happy and prosperous 
villagers and peasants, compelled to leave behind all 
they could not conveniently carry or place in wagons, 
fled before the fiery avenger with lagging footsteps, as 
if hopeful that the convulsion might cease and they be 
allowed to return to their own. Women, burdened 
down by~ bundles, leading their children by the hand, 
stopped before every crucifix and implored the Ma- 
donna to save them. The village churches en route 
were filled with worshippers, imploring the saints to 
stay the hand of fate and avert the ruin which was to 
overwhelm them. Men, women and children, with 
their dogs, cats and chickens, crowded the wagons on 
the road to Naples, all white with dust under the lurid 
glare. It was a scene emblematic of the inferno and 
one not likely soon to be forgotten by the fear-stricken 
wretches who served to contribute absolute realism to 
the horrid mise-en-scene. 

On the night of April 7th, the great cone of Vesuvius 
collapsed with a mighty roar and the cable railway and 
the new hotel near it were destroyed. The observa- 
tory in which Prof. Matteucci worked incessantly 
throughout the eruption at the peril of his life, his 
encouraging messages saving Naples from a panic, 



344: THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

fortunately escaped destruction. This convulsion 
was attended by a roar as of a battle of artillery 
which, to those at Naples, sounded like thunder. Ac- 
companying these detonations, repeated shocks of 
earthquakes, increasing in severity with every recur- 
rence, served to increase the terror of the people, who 
now were fleeing in a solid mass along the roads lead- 
ing to Naples and the country beyond. 

While Vesuvius was laboring mightily and the fears 
of the populace hourly increasing, the Italian govern- 
ment was doing all in its power to minimize the evils 
necessarily attendant upon widespread panic. On 
April 8th King Victor Emmanuel, accompanied by the 
Queen and their suites, arrived at Naples from Rome 
and immediate steps were taken to assist the refugees 
and alleviate the sufferings of the distressed. When 
the royal train reached the station at Naples, the erup- 
tion was almost at its worst, and his majesty being in- 
formed that Terra dell Annunziata was threatened with 
destruction, directed that he be taken there without 
delay. 

" But your majesty will be in danger," protested the 
Duke of Aosta. 

" It is my duty to go there, regardless of everything," 
responded the king, with characteristic frankness. 

Traveling in automobiles, the royal party set out for 
the stricken district. In the vehicles, besides the king 
and queen and the Duke and Duchess of Aosta, was 
the Princess of Schleswig-Holstein, who was the guest 
of the duchess. The royal party was received with 
cheers and weeping by the populace that lined the road. 
There were expressions of frantic joy, wild gesticula- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 345 

tions of entreaty, pitiful wailings from sorrow-laden 
bosoms. Men and women crowded around the auto- 
mobiles and kissing the king's hand and the queen's 
gown, the people exclaimed: "God has sent you to 
us ; our prayers now will be heard." 

One of the women, browned by toil under a blister- 
ing sun, her hands hardened by constant labor, and 
carrying a crucifix upon her breast, addressing the king, 
cried out: 

" If thou art our king, order the volcano to stop ! " 

" My poor woman/' responded the king, sadly, " I 
am but a man ; what you ask of me, only God may do." 

It was a terrible picture that presented itself to the 
gaze of King Victor and his party, but they did not 
dare approach those spots where the destroyer had 
done its work. In turn, Santa Anastasia, Cercola and 
Somma Vesuviana were visited and the refugees gath- 
ered there told that all that the nation could do would 
be done to relieve the wants of the people. Beyond 
these places 200 square miles of fertile land, covered 
with farms, gardens, vineyards, were overwhelmed by 
masses of lava, mud, cinders and ashes. This terri- 
tory only a few days previous was a garden of rare 
beauty and fertility. It contained scores of villages 
and thousands of happy, peaceful, rural homes. Eight 
days after the first eruption began, it was blotted out 
and had become a wilderness as dreary as any in the 
desolate wastes of Sahara. In all the country, there 
was no sign of life or vegetation. The tragedy was 
colossal and heart-rending. 

Spectators describe the gloomy picture that present- 
ed itself on the tenth day after the eruption began. 



346 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

At Rome there was sunshine, but twenty miles south 
a thin veil of smoke made nearby mountains dimly 
visible and their snow peaks were soiled and sooty. 
The zone of semi-obscurity began twenty-five miles 
above Naples. Here there was an uncanny phenom- 
enon. The sun, though shining, was invisible. Its 
light seemed to come through smoked glass, shedding 
a sickly glare upon whitened vegetation. 

Everything was covered with a thin white powder. 
Pretty white villas were daubed and dripping with mud, 
and people were busy on the roofs shoveling off the 
ashes. The crowds at the stations resembled millers, 
their clothing covered with powder. The Campania 
presented the appearance of a Dakota prairie after a 
blizzard, except that everything was gray instead of 
white. The ashes lay in drifts knee deep. Villas, 
trees, and churches were beaten with gray mud on the 
sides exposed to the volcanic storm. 

Ten miles north of Naples the train entered an area 
of semi-light. Billows of thick smoke rolled from 
the direction of the mountain. The railway telegraph 
poles were invisible twenty feet away. The train 
moved with extreme precaution to avoid collision. 
Breathing was difficult, and the smoke made the eyes 
water. This obscurity lasted until a short distance 
north of Naples, where the sky cleared and normal 
conditions were resumed. 

The volcano was hidden behind a thick curtain of 
smoke, which rose from the crater and then spread 
and fell, enveloping a vast circle in semi-darkness. Na- 
ples lies just beyond this circle. 

The eruption of Vesuvius almost entirely ceased on 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 347 

April 18th, but the results thereof overwhelmed every 
spectator by their ghastliness and extent. Every day 
that passed furnished new evidences of the magnitude 
of the catastrophe. At Portici, 243 houses were dam- 
aged, 195 at San Giovanni and Teduccio, 432 at Resina 
and 1,000 at Torre del Greco. In the villages on the 
Ottajano side of the mountain all the houses were 
damaged. At Nola, desolation reigned, the town hav- 
ing been abandoned. San Gennaro, on the east side 
of the mountain, was partially buried in sand and ashes 
and several houses collapsed. San Guiseppe was buried 
beneath four feet of ashes. Bosco Trecase, over- 
whelmed by two streams of lava at night, flowing from 
the Ciramella crater, became a waste. Four towns 
were destroyed and a dozen villages rendered almost 
uninhabitable. This enormous damage, coupled with 
the destruction of the cultivated lands, mutely attests 
to the ferocity of the Vesuvian visitation, from the 
effects of which the country will not recover for many 
years to come. 

Robert Underwood Johnson, associate editor of the 
Century Magazine, made a tour of the devastated dis- 
trict, passing enirely around Vesuvius. He gives the 
following graphic account of the catastrophe: 

" Since the Chicago fire I have seen nothing so ter- 
ribly impressive. Twenty years will not repair the 
damage, including the destruction of four whole vil- 
lages. With a change of wind or slightly greater pro- 
pulsion of the seismic force, the same fate might ex- 
tend to other segments of the circle of which Vesuvius 
is the center. 

" Arriving from Rome two hours late by train, I 



34:8 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

joined a party of two Italian gentlemen and two Eng- 
lish ladies, including Miss Underwood, the Rome cor- 
respondent of the London Standard. We caught a 
train from Torre Annunziata, three miles this side of 
Pompeii and two miles from the southern end of the 
wedge of lava which destroyed Bosco Trecase. 

" We had a magnificent view of the eruption, eight 
miles away. Rising at an angle of fifty degrees, the 
vast mass of tumult roundness was beautifully accent- 
uated by the full moon, shifting momentarily into new 
forms and drifting south in ldw, black clouds of ashes 
and cinders, reaching to Capri. At Torre del Greco 
we ran under this terrifying pall, apparently a hundred 
feet above, the solidity of which soon was revealed by 
the moonlight. 

" We reached Torre Annunziata at 3 o'clock in the 
morning. There was little suggestion of a disaster 
as we trudged through the sleeping town to the lava, 
two miles away. We reached the lava at a pictur- 
esque, cypress planted cemetery on the northern bound- 
ary of Torre Annunziata. The lava was cool above, 
but still alive with fire below. We could see dimly 
the extent of the destruction beyond the barrier of 
brown which had closed the streets, torn down the 
houses, invaded the vineyards, and broken Cook's rail- 
ways. 

" A better idea of the surroundings was obtained at 
dawn from the railway. We saw north what was left 
of Bosco Trecase — a great square stone church and a 
few houses inland in a sea of dull brown lava. North 
and east rose a thousand patches of blue smoke, like 
swamp miasma. All was dull and desolate slag, with 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 349 

nowhere the familiar serpentine forms of the old lava 
streams. 

" We ate a hasty luncheon before sunrise, when the 
great beauty of the scene was revealed. The column 
now seemed higher and more massive, rising to three 
times the height of Vesuvius. Each portion had a 
concentric motion and new aspects. The south edges 
floating towards the sea showed exquisite curved sur- 
faces, due to the upper moving current. It was like 
the decoration of the side of a Greek sarcophagus. 

" I was surprised to find no new lava at San Giu- 
seppe. Four towns here were destroyed in different 
ways — namely: by rain, cinders, and ashes, which 
could not be skirted, for they lay everywhere in a 
mass which had broken nearly every roof within the 
area of thirty miles by ten. From the lava, which 
was moving several feet a minute, we had no difficulty 
in escaping. 

" At Bosco Trecase the carabiniery drove the people 
before the fiery avalanche, but the flimsily built houses 
were no protection against the blizzard of cinders and 
ashes, tasking the roofs or strongly built walls all Sat- 
urday. The wedge east of the volcano thus destroyed 
extends ten miles at least, with a width of twenty or 
thirty miles. 

" Fancy a rich and thickly populated country of 
vineyards lying under three to six inches of ashes and 
cinders of the color of chocolate with milk, and you 
will get an idea of the desolate impression of the scene, 
a tragedy colossal and heartrending/' 

The loss of life, too, was equally appalling. The 
collapse of the roof of the market at Naples, covered 



350 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

as it was with tons of ashes, was fatal to 200, while as 
many more were seriously injured. The roll of the 
dead at San Giuseppe numbered 40, as far as known, 
while at Ottajano 550 bodies were recovered. At Ter- 
zigno 20 bodies were found. At Ottajano 73 children 
who, with their parents, were preparing to evacuate 
the town, wandered away from their escort in a blind- 
ing whirl of ashes, and no trace of them ever was dis- 
covered. It is certain they succumbed to suffocation 
and found graves beneath the ever-descending rain of 
ashes. While it is impossible to correctly state how 
many lives were sacrificed to the fury of the eruption, 
the estimate of 2,000 is deemed by the conservative as 
closely approximating the actual number. 

The horrors of the tragedy shocked all and the heart- 
felt sympathy of the nations of the world was ex- 
pressed. Many tales of heroic rescues by the soldiers, 
who were forwarded to the danger zone, reached Na- 
ples and awakened enthusiasm and admiration in 
every human breast. One is related of a soldier who 
braved the toppling walls at Ottajano to rescue a 
mother and her three children from a cellar into which 
they had fled for refuge. He succeeded in evading 
the oncoming rush of lava and brought his precious 
burden to a place of safety. Refugees, covered with 
mud and ashes, tottered into Naples with tales of ter- 
rible privation and suffering and deeds of heroism that 
appalled the sense and stirred the soul by turns. Per- 
sonally assuming charge of the relief work, King Vic- 
tor performed a noble work which endeared him the 
more to his subjects. 

Although Vesuvius again is quiet and the subter- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 351 

ranean forces which periodically agitate the volcano 
are for the time being subdued, recurrences of varying 
degrees of violence are looked for by the scientists of 
the world. It has been observed that since 1879 the 
eruptions of this volcano have been variously active 
and each time more alarming. There were two erup- 
tions in 1900; two others in 1903, each more violent 
than that of 1872. Red-hot stones, hurled 3,000 feet 
into the air, fall back upon the mountain with thun- 
derous report; The prodigiousness of this force may 
be appreciated when it is known that some of these 
stones have weighed not less than two tons. What 
does this portend? May we look for more eruptions 
in the future, more violent than their predecessors? 
If so, what, then, is the future of the garden of Italy? 
Constantly threatened by the fury of this volcano, 
whose power no human agency knows how to combat, 
it would seem that the safety of the populace affected 
by its fatal manifestations lies in flight. But with 
that stubbornness that characterizes humankind when 
battling against seemingly insuperable obstacles, it may 
be held as certain that until the universal cataclysm, 
succeeding generations of men and women will again 
and again reclaim the land wrested from them by Ve- 
suvius. That their task may not be vain, is the wish 
of the sympathizing races of the globe. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

ANCIENT HISTORY OF VESUVIUS 

Not Active Before the Christian Era — Used by the 
Gladiators as a Fortress — Overthrow of Pompeii 
Described by Pliny the Younger— The Great Earth- 
quakes of the Campagna-WFifty-six Recorded Erup- 
tions of the Volcano — Finding of Pompeii After 
i, 800 Years of Disappearance — Great Educational 
Value in the City's Resurrection. 

Before the Christian era, Mt. Vesuvius was not 
known as an active crater. In the year 72 B. C, 
Spartacus, the gladiator, with a few trusty fol- 
lowers, escaped from Rome and made the old crater 
a fortress. Clodius, the Roman general, besieged 
it with 3,000 men, guarding the only entrance to 
the crater. The gladiators, however, tore down 
the long vines which festooned the cliffs and then, sud- 
denly lowering themselves from a precipice, bravely 
cut their way through the investing army. At that 
time the volcano had grown up luxuriously to forests 
and vineyards. No one suspected that within its 
flower-bedecked flanks Vulcan, the God of fire, was 
forging thunderbolts, and heating his caldrons of lava, 
preparatory to belching forth fire and destruction upon 
the human race. 

Strabo, the Latin historian, mentions the moun- 

352 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 353 

tain, then called Somma, and draws attention to the 
fact that the rocks point to a fiery origin. 

It is one of the smaller volcanoes of the globe, bear- 
ing no comparison in size with Mauna Loa, Popocate- 
petl or other large fire mountains of the Occident. Its 
height is 4,000 feet, and circumference at the base 35 
miles. The adjacent country has been noted for thou- 
sands of years for its rich volcanic soil. Geologists 
claim that in prehistoric ages the mountain was twice 
as high as it is at the present time. 

The first intimations of volcanic force and charac- 
ter were about 63 B. C. Then for sixteen years the 
adjacent country was frequently shaken by earth- 
quakes. A small eruption destroyed a part of Pom- 
peii, but this was restored again. 

It was in 79 A. D. that Pompeii, Herculaneum and 
other Campanian cities were buried. The catastrophe 
has been immortalized in that famous romance of Bul- 
wer's, " The Last Days of Pompeii." The author de- 
rived his information largely from the letters of Pliny 
the Younger to the famous Latin historian, Tacitus. 
In these letters he relates how he aided and hastened 
the flight of his aged uncle, Pliny the Elder, from Pom- 
peii to Misenum, 16 miles away; but even at that dis- 
tance from the volcano the old man succumbed under 
its fiery missiles. 

For three days Vesuvius rained upon the devoted 
cities a ceaseless deluge of ashes, pumice, hot mud 
and scoria, mingled with death dealing sulphurous va- 
pors. For three days the blackness of night prevailed 
and those fleeing from the scene could only grope along 
in a darkness that was occasionally lighted up by a 



354 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

glare of zig-zag lightnings in the cloud above the cra- 
ter. This cloud is famous in the history of the vol- 
cano and is depicted by historians and poets as the 
" pine-shaped column of the breath of Vulcan." 

Pompeii being on the leeward side of the mountain 
was overwhelmed and buried many feet deep in fine 
ashes. Herculaneum, on the other side of Vesuvius, 
was deluged with hot pasty mud, which, after harden- 
ing, was very difficult to excavate. For that reason 
Herculaneum was in much better state of preservation 
when exhumed. 

For 1,500 years these buried cities of Campania were 
only a memory, and no one knew their resting place. 
In 1575 workmen who were building an aqueduct for 
the water supply of Torre, came upon Pompeii, far 
beneath the surface, but no systematic excavations 
took place until 1748, when they were begun in good 
earnest. The work has been carried on with faithful 
and unselfish devotion by archaeological societies and 
the most valuable relics placed in the museums of Rome 
and Naples. For the education of the whole world 
this unveiling of an ancient civilization was a priceless 
treasure. Two cities, Herculaneum, the home of the 
wealthy; Pompeii, the abode of Roman artisans, peas- 
ants and the middle classes, were restored to us, just 
as they stood on that 24th day of August, A. D. 79. 
The " eroding tooth of time " had failed to do its work 
in this case, and many vexed questions regarding the 
manners and customs, the progress of civilization and 
the advance in fine arts and manufactures among the 
Romans were settled. In one storeroom were found 
raisins, dates, chestnuts, walnuts, figs, almonds, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 355 

prunes, lentils, hams, fish and lobsters. Even pies and 
other pastry came to light. 

From the restored city we learn that Pompeii was 
built, like modern cities, with streets crossing at right 
angles. They were paved with lava rock, and foun- 
tains for water stood at the street corners. There 
were several open air theaters, with seats cut in lava 
rock and faced with marble. The theater tickets were 
of bronze, stamped like a coin. Under the seats hung 
a metal funnel used as an ear trumpet, the first sug- 
gestion of our telephone. In the courts of the wealthy 
were sun-dials, and to measure time in cloudy weather 
clepsydra, or water clocks, were found, which told the 
hours by the slow escape of liquids. 

A forum, 500 feet by 100, was unearthed, and 22 
vases standing in it, on which to place statues of illus- 
trious men. Around the forum was being erected a 
new marble wall, and the last long stroke of the trowel 
on the mortar, as the workman dropped his tools to 
run for life, is as plain as if it was made yesterday. 

In a banquet hall was a magnificent painting, show- 
ing the luxurious display of the wealthy. Four pea- 
cocks guarded, with tails overspread like a dome, the 
unique feast of Roman dainties. There -were turtles 
with crabs on their backs, lobsters holding blue tinted 
eggs in their claws, a stuffed rat, a basket of grass- 
hoppers surrounded by a huge Pompeiian sausage, 
garlands of mushrooms, suckling pigs and heads of 
wild boars, garnished with lettuce and cabbages, the 
whole fantastically decorated with festoons of flowers, 
peaches, cherries, lemons and eggs of pigeons. It is 
interesting to note the barbaric splendor in which the 



356 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

wealthy Romans lived. When Pompeii was destroyed 
Rome was the mistress of the whole civilized world. 
We see in Pompeii the life of the nation depicted, when 
Rome was at the very acme of its magnificence. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

THE VOLCANO KRAKATOA IN JAVA 

The Most Terrible Volcanic Explosion in the World's 
History — Accurate Records Gathered by the Royal 
Society of Great Britain — Volcanic Matter Thrown 
Twenty-three Miles Into the Air — Air Waves From 
the Concussions Carried Around the World Four 
Times Successively — Ocean Bed Sinks goo Feet — 
Great Volcano Blown Into Fragments — Tidal Waves 
50 to 135 Feet High Sweep the Coasts — Man of War 
Carried Two Miles Inland — Vast Quantities of Pum- 
ice Stone Carried a Thousand Miles — Boom of the 
Explosion Heard Distinctly Three Thousand Miles 
Away. 

During the last week of August, A. D. 1883, occurred 
the most terrible subterranean convulsion in the 
world's history. All other volcanic eruptions are be- 
littled, when compared with this. Thirty-six thousand 
Javanese and Sumatrans perished in the holocaust of 
hot mud, pumice stone and scoria which followed, and 
thousands were swept away to sea by a succession of 
huge tidal waves, which rushed through the Straits of 
Sunda like demoniac Niagaras. 

So marvelous were the phenomena, and so like a tale 
of the Arabian Nights were the reports of eye-wit- 
nesses, that, the Royal Society of Great Britain ap- 
pointed a committee of scientists to verify the data. 

357 



358 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

The following facts and figures, compiled from their 
voluminous reports and exhaustive investigations, 
may be relied upon as accurate. From many data 
furnished by scientific eye-witnesses the following. ex- 
traordinary phenomena were proved: 

On the 26th and 27th of August, Krakatoa, a small 
volcano only 3,000 feet in height, projected volcanic 
rocks and scoria skyward to an elevation variously es- 
timated by triangulation at from seventeen to twenty- 
three miles. This is four times the height of Mount 
Everest, the loftiest peak of the Himalayas. The air 
waves from some of the heaviest explosions were car- 
ried around the world (25,000 miles) as many as four 
successive times. This fact was indicated by the rec- 
ords of many delicate meteorological instruments of 
the astronomical stations in America, Europe and 
India. 

A cone of Krakatoa, three thousand feet high, was 
split in two, leaving a precipice jutting onto the ocean. 
At the same time the bed of the sea in the Straits of 
Sunda sank 900 feet at some points. A part of Kra- 
katoa Island sank 1,700 feet. The volcano was torn 
into fragments by the explosions and the missing por- 
tion (estimated at 200 billion cubic feet) disappeared. 
Whether it was blown off into space in the form of 
cosmic dust, or sank into the bowels of the earth is 
still a mystery. 

Simultaneously with the explosions of the 26th and 
27th, enormous tidal waves w r ere raised, ranging, as 
estimated, from 50 to 135 feet high. A very accurate 
measurement of one of them was ^2 feet above high 
tide limits. The man of war Berouw was carried in- 




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THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 361 

land on the summit of one wave, and stranded nearly 
two miles from the sea, and thirty feet above tide 
water. 

Among the marvels of the eruption were the vast 
quantities of pumice stone ejected and carried by the 
winds and tides for thousands of miles in every direc- 
tion. Some of the pumice and volcano dust fell on 
ships as far distant from Krakatoa as 1,100 miles, while 
in the nearby straits and bays extensive floes of white 
pumice were encountered from three to six feet thick. 
For more than a year, great banks of pumice and po- 
rous lava were encountered by navigators in the In- 
dian Ocean as far as Africa. Much of this flotsam 
was found to be encrusted with barnacles and other 
shell fish that had attached themselves. 

The most astonishing phenomena, however, were the 
explosions themselves. They were distinctly heard 
by thousands of people in Java, Sumatra, Celebes, Siam, 
Burmah and the Philippine Islands, as proved by the 
records of instruments, coincident with the distinct 
booms reported by reliable ear-witnesses. On the 27th 
of August they were plainly heard at Singapore, 522 
miles from the Straits of Sunda; at Bangkok, 1,413 
miles; at Manila, 1,804 miles; at Ceylon, 2,058 miles; 
at the Island of Rodriguez, 3,000 miles distant! 

It seems incredible that sounds could be carried so 
far through the air. But the Chief of Police of the 
Island of Rodriguez, a careful and scientific man him- 
self, heard the booms with his own ears from the direc- 
tion of Java, took careful note of the exact time of 
the day, the number of detonations, the direction of 
the sounds and the wind. As he also brought the evi- 



362 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

dence of several other witnesses to bear in corrobora- 
tion of his own statements, and the time of day corre- 
sponded exactly with the records of meteorological sta- 
tions in India and Ceylon, the committee were con- 
vinced that the marvelous acoustic phenomena actu- 
ally occurred. Rodriguez is the same distance from 
the Straits of Sunda as San Francisco is from New 
York City. The same day, similar booms were heard 
in Burmah. The life-saving station taking them 
for minute guns from an ocean liner in distress, sent 
out a revenue cutter to carry aid, but she returned after 
a long and fruitless search. 

Still more wonderful are the records of the delicate 
instruments which took account of the vibrations of 
air propelled by the several great explosions. There 
were scores of these mechanisms, located in all parts 
of the civilized world, each connected with an astro- 
nomical Or sidereal clock, and their accuracy was ab- 
solute, beyond the cavil of any skeptic. They are 
geared to measure ioths and even iooths of seconds. 
According to charts prepared by the committee, it is 
accurately shown where the vibrations of Krakatoa's 
convulsions were carried around our globe once, then 
a second time, a third time, and were even accurately 
measured the fourth time before they were dissipated. 
This meant a distance of 100,000 miles! 

The City of Batavia in Java is 100 miles from the 
Straits of Sunda. At this point the movement of the 
earth during the eruption was hardly perceptible. The 
air vibrations, however, were simply terrific. The 
hearing of many people was almost destroyed. Nearly 
all the glass windows were smashed. Many buildings 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 368 

were thrown to the earth, not by any force in the wind 
or ground, but simply by the sound waves. At Bata- 
via there were three days of black Egyptian darkness. 
Nothing could be heard but the volcano's continuous 
roar; nothing could be seen but the flashes of lightning 
that played back and forth incessantly through the 
black murky vapors that shot more than twenty miles 
into the sky over the volcano. Hot mud, cinders, 
ashes, scoria and pumice stone were falling everywhere 
within a radius of 200 miles from Krakatoa. What 
took place nearer the crater than Batavia may never 
be known, for few remained to tell the tale, and those 
who escaped were so crazed with terror that their evi- 
dence would not be reliable. The most accurate ac- 
counts and details came from the captains of many 
steamers and merchant vessels, who, intending to fol- 
low the ocean highway through the straits, approached 
the volcano before they discovered their danger. 

Anjer, a seaport town of Java near the Straits, was 
completely blotted out by the tidal waves which fol- 
lowed each severe explosion. Scores of the coast vil- 
lages of Java and Sumatra suffered the same fate. 
Whether the residents were all destroyed is not known. 
The most of the coast villagers were fishermen, and 
expert swimmers. Doubtless many of those who were 
swept miles to sea, swam back again, but so great was 
the awe inspired by the volcano, that the surviving 
Javanese seldom returned to the western end of the 
island. 

The tidal waves, which exceeded in magnitude any 
that we have record of, were carried in all directions, 
and made themselves evident in all the oceans and at 



364 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

many recording stations. They nearly met each other 
from opposite sides of the globe, being noted on both 
shores of Central America. The west coast of France, 
the south of England, Alaska, South America, and 
Honolulu were all visited by their impetus, and unu- 
sually high water and agitation recorded. No doubt 
the cause of these waves was the sudden subsidence of 
the seabed under the Straits of Sunda. Its sudden 
breaking down 900 feet below the usual level would 
not fail to produce terrific agitation, and the inpour- 
ing of ocean waters from all directions. 

What happened in Krakatoa is described by expert 
volcanologists in the following way: 

As the island was low and the bottom of the wide 
crater of Krakatoa not far from the sea level, it is most 
probable that a rent occurred either in the crater's rim 
or in the flank of the volcano below the sea level. The 
ocean was thus admitted and found its way through 
the lateral shafts of the volcano to the white hot liquids 
many miles below. Here the sea water united with 
the lava to form pumice stone cinders, scoria, cosmic 
dust and steam. 

It is most certain that a vaster quantity of ejecta of 
the various kinds, was vomited into the air than any 
one volcano had ever produced. These were scattered 
all over the great islands of Java, Borneo and Sumatra, 
and the adjacent oceans. Merchant vessels as far 
away as 1,100 miles received a liberal rain of white dust 
on their decks. Several months later one ship's log 
shows that for several days she sailed through banks 
of floating pumice that was already encrusted with 
shells and barnacles. The officials of the Dutch gov- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 365 

ernment (to whom Java belongs) made accurate and 
profuse notes of ail these phenomena. 

Naturally the loss of such a vast amount of subter- 
ranean material would produce a corresponding vac- 
uity. The sinking of the island and ocean bed from 
900 to 1,700 feet would account for the filling up of 
the space. 

The most peculiar phenomenon of this eruption was 
the quantity of cosmic dust cast into space. That this 
was launched beyond the region of the clouds and be- 
came a part of the upper strata of the atmosphere 
there is no question. For a whole year astronomers 
and meteorologists in every part of the globe recorded 
and compared notes of the remarkable sunrise and 
sunset " glows." These showed different tints, accord- 
ing to locality, varying from crimson to purple and 
reddish olive. This dust doubtless was as tenuous 
as the lightest vapor, and was able to hold its place be- 
yond the atmosphere because out of the reach of the 
moist vapors and rain which would wash it back to 
earth. As late as a year subsequent to the explosion 
masters of sailing vessels in the Indian and Pacific 
oceans reported that a very fine and impalpable de- 
posit would gather on the decks unless they were 
washed every day. Meteorologists attributed this to 
the gradual return of the cosmic matter from the up- 
per regions of the atmosphere. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

ST. PIERRE, MARTINIQUE, ANNIHILATED 

Story of the Swift Destruction of a Beautiful City in 
the Lesser Antilles — Mt. Pelee's Terrific Outburst 
of Poisonous Gases, Flame and Ashes — Entire Pop- 
ulation Killed Instantaneously — La Souf riere's Erup- 
tion That Devastated the Island of St. Vincent — 
Earthquake in Guatemala. 

One of the most dramatic and sudden disasters of 
modern times was the destruction of the beautiful town 
of St. Pierre, chief city of Martinique, May 8, 1902. 
The city was wiped out within ten minutes, and its 
population of 30,000 persons perished to a man. This 
was the awful work of Mt. Pelee, a long inactive vol- 
cano at whose foot, fronting the bay, St. Pierre was 
built. 

It was just before 8 o'clock in the morning when 
the volcano, whose ancient crater had been occupied 
by a pretty lake, discharged a fearful blast of poison- 
ous gases that swept down on the little city, arid in a 
few seconds obliterated all signs of life. A whirling 
mass of flame followed that utterly consumed the 
town itself, and then great torrents of hot mud rolled 
down the mountain side and into the sea, sweeping all 
vegetation from the beautiful slopes. 

The inhabitants of St. Pierre were destroyed in- 
stantaneously by breathing the suffocating, burning 

366 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 367 

gases. Probably not one had time to take two steps 
toward escape. They were enveloped in what was 
aptly termed a " hurricane of flame." A man at Morne 
Rouge, a town seven kilometers from St. Pierre, who 
was looking at Mt. Pelee, said that he saw seven lumi- 
nous points on the side of the volcano just before it 
burst. Then there was a terrible suction of the air 
toward the mountain, which emitted a sheet of flame 
that swept down toward St. Pierre. 

The suddenness of it all was well depicted by W. S. 
Merriwether, the New York Herald correspondent, 
who wrote: 

" The little that actually happened then can be briefly, 
very briefly told. It is known that at one minute there 
lay a city smiling in the summer morning; that in 
another minute it was a mass of swirling flames, with 
every soul of its 30,000 writhing in the throes of death. 
One moment and the church bells were ringing joyful 
chimes in the ears of St. Pierre's 30,000 people — the 
next the flame-clogged bells were sobbing a requiem 
for 30,000 dead. One waft of a morning breeze flowed 
over cathedral spires and domes, over facades and 
arches and roofs and angles of a populous and light- 
hearted city — the next swept a lone mass of white hot 
ruins. The sun glistened one moment on sparkling 
fountains, green parks and fronded palms — its next 
ray shone on fusing metal, blistered, flame-wrecked 
squares and charred stumps of trees. One day and 
the city was all light and color, all gayety and grace 
— the next its ruins looked as though they had been 
crusted over with twenty centuries of solitude and 
silence. " 



368 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Half a century had passed since Mt. Pelee had 
shown signs of activity, but it gave distinct warnings 
of its awful purpose for several days before the final 
catastrophe. Shocks were felt, ashes fell on the city 
and the volcano shrouded its head in smoke. Flames 
broke out from the crater the night of May 3rd and 
two days later a stream of lava rushed down the bed 
of a dry mountain stream to the sea, destroying plan- 
tations, sugar factories and human lives. The next 
day and night the volcano increased in activity, but 
fewer than two score of the inhabitants of St. Pierre 
sought safety elsewhere. 

Fort de France, toward the south end of the island 
first knew of the disaster when, the morning of May 
8th, a thick cloud of smoke, cinders and ashes spread 
over the city, and the sea receded for fifty feet and 
rushed back over the shore twice. There was no doubt 
that Pelee had broken out and troops and provisions 
were hurried aboard vessels and sent to St. Pierre. 
In two hours they returned to tell that St. Pierre was 
obliterated and the seashore there in such a blaze that 
they could not land. 

When landings finally could be effected, a few sur- 
vivors, frightfully burned, were found in the suburb 
of Le Carbet. The towns of Le Precheur and Man- 
ceau had been utterly destroyed, but most of their in- 
habitants had had time to flee to places of safety. 

Eighteen vessels lay at anchor in the harbor of St. 
Pierre that May morning. The storm of boiling mud, 
liquid fire and molten rocks that was hurled forth by 
the volcano destroyed them all but one. This, the 
British steamer Roddam, had steam up; her cables 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 369 

were slipped and she backed away from shore, her 
captain, badly burned, remaining at the wheel. Nine 
hours later she reached Castries, St. Lucia, a charred, 
dismantled hulk, covered with ashes and cinders, many 
of her crew lying dead on the decks, the others scorched 
and scalded. Twelve of them had jumped overboard 
and drowned. 

Several other vessels in the harbor had steam up 
and endeavored to escape, but they were enveloped in 
the whirlwind of fire and burned to the water's edge. 
The Quebec liner Roraima sank with a terrific explo- 
sion, a few only of her crew escaping death. James 
Taylor, one of the officers who was rescued, said: 

" We had experienced the greatest difficulty in get- 
ting into the harbor. Appalling sounds were issuing 
from the mountains behind the town, which were 
shrouded in darkness. All the passengers were up and 
some were trying to obtain photographs. Suddenly 
I heard a tremendous explosion. Ashes began to fall 
thicker upon the deck and I could see a black cloud 
sweeping down on us. I ran below, sprang into a 
room and shut the door to keep out the heat, which 
was almost unbearable. The ship rocked and I ex- 
pected every moment it would sink. Outside I heard 
a voice pleading for the door to be opened. It was 
Scott, the first officer. I opened the door and dragged 
him into the room. 

" It soon became unbearably hot and I went on deck. 
All about were lying the dead and dying. Little chil- 
dren were moaning for water. I obtained water, but 
when it was held to their swollen lips they were unable 



370 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

to swallow because of the ashes which clogged their 
throats. 

" All aft the ship was afire, and from the land came 
drafts of terrible heat. At last, when I could stand it 
no longer, I jumped overboard. The water was almost 
hot enough to parboil me, but a wave soon swept in 
from the ocean, bringing with it cool water. I was 
carried out to sea in the receding wave, and on its re- 
turn was washed against an upturned sloop, to which 
I clung. About 2:30 in the afternoon I was picked 
up by the cruiser Suchet." \ 

Mt. Pelee continued in terrifying activity for days 
afterward, and the inhabitants of the entire island were 
panic-stricken. All who could do so took passage to 
other islands, every vessel being crowded with the 
refugees. 

Instantly upon the reception of the news of the dis- 
aster at St. Pierre relief expeditions were fitted out 
and sailed for that port. The United States led the 
way in official action, earning the heartfelt gratitude 
of the French by its promptness in giving succor to 
their afflicted island. Other nations were quick to 
follow, and in addition relief parties hurried from every 
one of the Lesser Antilles and other West India 
islands. There was little to be done at St. Pierre, but 
many hundreds of persons in the surrounding country 
were rescued, and sums of money and quantities of 
provisions were distributed among the destitute island- 
ers. In the ruined city there were countless horrible 
sights. Blackened corpses lay everywhere and it was 
necessary to cremate them speedily to prevent a pesti- 
lence. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 371 

The foreign consuls resident in St. Pierre, of course, 
all perished. They were: For the United States, T. 
T. Prentis; Great Britain, J. Japp; Denmark, M. E. S. 
Meyer; Italy, P. Plissonneau; Mexico, E. Dupie; Swed- 
en and Norway, Gustave Borde. Louis Ayme, Ameri- 
can consul to Guadeloupe, who was one of the first 
to reach the scene of the catastrophe, after great dif- 
ficulty found the remains of Mr. and Mrs. Prentis. 
May 18th, despite the continued eruptions, a party 
went ashore from the United States steamships Cin- 
cinnati and Potomac to bring away these bodies and 
that of Mr. Japp. They succeeded, although narrowly 
escaping death. While they were ashore the volcano 
broke forth again in smoke, fire and molten lava. The 
American sailors were in deadly peril, but refused to 
abandon their gruesome burdens. Fortunately a sud- 
den shift of the wind saved their lives, the ashes, gas, 
smoke and hot stones being carried seaward. 

Martinique was not alone in its affliction, for the 
same day the neighboring British island of St. Vin- 
cent was partly devastated by a terrible eruption of 
the volcano La Soufriere (the sulphur pit). This cra- 
ter, at the northern end of the island, had been active 
for nine days before that awful Thursday, and then 
with a tremendous roar it sent up vast columns of 
smoke and deluged the whole island with ashes and 
red hot rocks. Down the sides of the volcano flowed 
hundreds of streams of lava, making a fiery net-work 
from which the unfortunate inhabitants could not 
escape. Fully 2,500 persons perished, the victims in- 
cluding nearly all the Carib Indians, who lived about 
the base of La Soufriere. Indeed, when the first of 



372 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the relief expeditions reached the district, not one of 
the Indians was to be found. If any of them survived 
they had disappeared. This was the practical extinc- 
tion of the race that was found there by Columbus 
four hundred years ago. And so an old prophecy that 
the Caribs would be sacrificed to the fire god they wor- 
shipped was fulfilled. 

The facts that St. Vincent was not so thickly popu- 
lated as Martinique and that hundreds of the inhabit- 
ants of plantations and villages below La Soufriere 
had fled when the volcano first began to grow active, 
accounted for the smaller loss of life on the British 
island. But the eruption there was no less violent than 
that of Mt. Pelee. Sixteen square miles of land was 
covered by lava and the destitution was great. Hun- 
dreds of persons were most painfully injured by hot 
cinders and sulphurous fumes. 

For ninety years La Soufriere had slept. In 1812 
it had burst forth and nearly destroyed the island. 
Then the crater closed and was filled with water, form- 
ing a beautiful lake. The Indians, whose traditions 
preserved the memory of former eruptions, had come 
to regard the volcano as harmless. They built their 
huts all over its verdure-clad slopes, and died for their 
confidence, as did the victims of Mt. Vesuvius many 
hundred years before. 

Just preceding these volcanic outbursts in Mar- 
tinique and St. Vincent and probably closely related 
to them, there were severe and destructive earthquakes 
in Guatemala. For nearly a week the shocks con- 
tinued and many towns on the western slope of the 
Sierras were wrecked. Quezaltenango, the second city 






THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 373 

of Guatemala, suffered the most. Nearly all its busi- 
ness buildings and residences were destroyed and about 
1,000 persons perished. As in San Francisco, fires 
broke out in the ruins, and many of the people went 
insane or committed suicide. In the town of Ocos 
every house was overthrown and the banks of the river 
were squeezed together until it was twenty feet nar- 
rower than before. In all, this Guatemalan earthquake 
resulted in the loss of several thousand lives and the 
destruction of property valued at $50,000,000. 



CHAPTER XXIX 

VOLCANOES OF HAWAII 

Haleakala, Large Extinct Crater, and Mauna Loa, 
Most Active of Live Volcanoes — Descriptions of 
Two Lava Flows From the Latter — Narrative of a 
Visit to the Famous Crater in the Clouds — No Trace 
of Life Found There — Sublime Scene When Mokua- 
weoweo Was in Eruption. 

When Hawaii was annexed to the United States, 
Uncle Sam came into possesson of two of the greatest 
wonders on earth — the largest extinct volcano, 
Haleakala, and the most active and energetic of all 
the live volcanoes, Mauna Loa. For those interested 
in the subterranean disturbances of Mother Earth, 
facts and incidents are here given, which will throw 
much light on eruptions and earthquake convulsions. 

The Island of Hawaii has an area of 4,000 square 
miles. Of this, Mauna Loa and its slopes occupy 
more than half, and Mauna Kea, a still loftier but ex- 
tinct volcano, the remainder. Between them is a 
tableland twenty-five miles wide and 8,000 feet above 
sea level. Onto this tableland the volcano throws 
the larger part of her lava rivers. It is sometimes 
called " Pele's backyard and dumping ground. " The 
lower slopes of this tableland are covered with a vast 
tropical forest, one of the most impenetrable and 
luxuriant known to man. Along the shores and ad- 

374 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 375 

joining are the great sugar and coffee plantations of 
Hilo. 

Mauna Loa is a grand huge dome seventy miles in 
length, nearly 15,000 feet in altitude, and is generally 
crowned with a glittering cap of snow and ice. There 
are from twenty to forty eruptions each century, but 
few lava rivers reach the shore. Earthquakes are 
frequent, but so seldom severe that little attention is 
paid to them. Descriptions of two lava flows will 
give the reader an excellent idea of the mountain's 
peculiarities. 

On March 27, 1868, the mountain awoke from a 
long slumber, and the whole southern end of the island 
was shaken at short intervals for ten days. The 
crater of Kilauea became active, and parts of the cliff 
around it were thrown to the floor. Boulders of 
forty or fifty' tons were detached, and some of them 
came rolling down the steeper slopes of Mauna Loa. 
At 4 p. m. April 2nd came the severest earthquake 
ever known on the island. Every stone wall or stone 
house within fifty miles of Kilauea was demolished 
and many frame houses were damaged. As the mis- 
sionary, Rev. Titus M. Coan (stationed at Hilo), re- 
lates the story: " It seemed as if all the ribs and pil- 
lars supporting the earth had been shattered. I 
rushed out of the house and found my wife on the 
grass plot; together we gazed with astonishment at 
the house, the trees and the garden. They rocked and 
careened in waves that were like the surges of the 
ocean. When we entered the house a few minutes 
later, the bookcase in my study, filled with heavy vol- 
umes, had been thrown forward on its face. The 



376 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

whole belongings and furniture were heaped on the 
floors in indescribable confusion. But we were thank- 
ful that we did not live in Ka-u, the district beyond 
Kilauea. Here seemed to be the focus of the trouble. 
For seventy-five miles the southern shore of the island 
subsided permanently seven feet. Many coast vil- 
lages were submerged, and a fissure, more or less 
marked by steam, jets of lava, and the rending of 
precipices, developed itself from Kilauea forty miles 
in a straight line into Ka-u. Several landslides oc- 
curred in the vicinity. One in particular, where the 
ground was watersoaked, gained impetus by being 
thrown over a precipitous declivity several hundred 
feet high, and then swept three miles down onto the 
plain in as many minutes. In this catastrophe ten 
houses, thirty-one souls and 500 head of cattle were 
overwhelmed in twenty to forty feet of mud. Not 
one of the unfortunates was ever recovered. This 
deluge of pasty earth was half a mile wide. 

" About the same time a tidal wave swept the whole 
south shore. The crest of the immense billow was as 
high as the tops of the trees, and as it surged inland 
and back again to the ocean, it carried away 108 
thatched houses of the Kanakas and forty-six natives 
were drowned. And now the strangest phenomenon 
took place in Kilauea. The floor of a large part of 
the crater gave way, falling several hundred feet, and 
the eternal fires nearly all disappeared. Our vol- 
canologists claim that the lava flowed by the subter- 
ranean fissure mentioned above, as a hadean under- 
ground river, to the point of the next outbreak in Ka-u. 

" During all this time the earth tremblings had 




E. H. Sothern, as Hamlet. E. S. Willard. 

Sarah Bernhardt as she appeared at the great tent benefit. 
Julia Marlowe. Sarah Bernhardt as Adrienne Lecouvre. 

These great artists appeared at the benefit for the San Francisco people 
in the famous Bernhardt Tent in which she starred through Texas. The 
performance netted $15,605. 




ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 

Rain of ashes on the Bay of Naples where the darkness became so 
intense that ships could not navigate in safety in broad day. Photograph 
taken April 6, 1906. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 379 

been incessant. Some who counted claimed to have 
recorded as many as 1,000 shakes in a single day! 
They ceased with the outbreak of the lava, as is the 
usual case. 

" On the 7th of April came the crowning climax of 
the catastrophe — the holocaust of fire and rock." 

From the story of Captain Brown, a retired whaler, 
whose ranch was exactly in the path of the awful river 
of death, is taken the following graphic account of the 
eruption: 

" My beautiful ranch-, with hundreds of fine horses, 
cattle and goats, was wiped out in a very few minutes. 
I was a rich man at supper time, but thirty minutes 
later, as poor as Job's turkey. Our house was pretty 
well shaken up, and, like all the rest of the folks in 
Ka-u, we were living in a tent close to it. About dusk 
I heard a terrible buzzing up on Mauna Loa. It 
sounded like a thousand swarms of bees, or hundreds 
of sawmills in full tide of manufacture. Then, three 
miles above us, I saw a crack yawn open a mile long 
on Mauna Loa, and out poured the white lava, like an 
ocean of milk, spreading out like a fan and plunging 
down in three rivers. I saw in a twinkling there 
wasn't a second to lose, so starting my children (and 
I had a good many of them), I grabbed one sick child 
in my arms and with my invalid wife we started. The 
Kanakas wanted to mount a little hill near the house 
but I told them all to follow me. There was a little 
valley near the house, and into this we scrambled, 
jumping ravines, logs and bushes; the lava, as liquid 
as water roaring down that same valley above us, 
making a quarter mile while we made a hundred feet. 



380 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

It swept by us like a racehorse just as we mounted 
onto higher ground, and took the house and hill along 
with it. We escaped by a hair's-breadth, the clothes 
almost burned off from us by the hot air." 

"And how long did it take the lava to reach the 
ocean? Was there no stock saved?" he was asked. 

"In just one hour it poured into the sea — ten miles 
away — plain nearly level, too. When fire met water 
I tell you the commotion was terrific; it sounded like 
a cannonade between all the navies of the world. Two 
great cones of black sand were thrown up. Our 
family horse was saved by a miracle. He was tied 
with a lariat and the lava burned it off the tree. He 
came the same trick we did, crossed the little valley 
below and joined us on high ground. We saw the 
cattle overtaken by the lava, and puff! a little blast 
of steam! and they were reduced to ashes. Six were 
surrounded on a little island in the fire river. It was 
ten days before the lava crust was thick enough to 
get them over it. One Kanaka family escaped as by 
miracle; their thatch house surrounded by hot a-a 
piled as high as your head. Several times the house 
caught fire. In two weeks the lava flow stopped and 
turned dead. But enough smoke and sulphur were 
thrown out to fill the air around for a thousand miles, 
thick as pea-soup. That lava was white-hot, like a 
river of milk; dazzled your eyes like the sun." 

The lava flow of 1880 was the most persistent and 
destructive of the volcano's many eruptions. On 
November 5th a bright spot like the star Sirius was 
was seen a few miles from the summit by the people 
of Hilo, fifty miles distant. It soon burst into full 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 381 

view as a magnificent river, nearly a mile wide, twenty 
feet deep, and so brilliant that it rivalled the light of 
the sun. For thirty miles it plunged forward until 
it reached the base of Mauna Kea, and there spread 
out like a vast lake of fire. Then from another point 
a second stream started to the southeast toward 
Kilauea crater. In a few days a third rift opened 
high up on Mauna Loa, and rolled with a wide cur- 
rent directly into the great tropical forest and cut its 
way in a zigzag course directly toward Hilo. The 
people of the town were in consternation. 

Just here it may interest the reader to learn how a 
Mauna Loa fire stream travels. The vent is always 
below the summit, for the two craters are too vast 
and deep to fill up and overflow. At first the lava 
ejected is more than white hot, having the dazzling 
brilliancy of the sun. Its liquidity is equal to that of 
water. With a terrific force it dashes down the moun- 
tain side, tearing away boulders, ridges, and even 
hills, cliffs and scoria cones. Rocks, earth and a-a 
fields are borne away on its surface like drift-wood 
and leaves on a freshet. The initial velocity is from 
ten to twenty miles an hour. It cools rapidly by ex- 
posure to the air, and after the first hour becomes 
sluggish and ropy, worming and writhing its way 
along the ground like the folds of a boa constrictor. 
In consistence it resembles thin mortar and has the 
color and texture of molasses candy before pulling. 
It is a hundred times hotter, however. Now it is on 
more level ground and its progress slow but mighty 
and irresistible. Sometimes it is six miles wide. A 
thick black crust forms on its surface like ice, and 



382 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

under this blanket the white hot stream flows on, fed 
from the fountain head through great tunnels bur- 
rowed out beneath the crust. River beds, deep can- 
yons, and fissures are filled up to a high level as it 
advances. When a forest or swampy ground is in- 
vaded the phenomena are terrific and marvelous in- 
deed; the explosions are heard for many miles and 
the lava boils and surges like a huge caldron. 

In a forest of large trees the lava surrounds the 
trunks and hardens. Theii the trees burn down to 
the roots and a strange sight is presented; the hard- 
ened lava is like the top of a pepper box, with round 
chimneys perhaps ten or twenty feet deep. When 
the fountain head ceases to pour out lava, the tun- 
nels and caverns are emptied, and may later be en- 
tered and followed, sometimes for many miles. The 
tablelands and slopes of Mauna Loa are honey- 
combed with these wonderful grottoes. 

Returning to the flow of 1 880-81 ; the stream burned 
its way slowly through the impenetrable forest for 
months, covering several hundred square miles. 
Thousands of tourists flocked thitherward from all 
parts of the world. The lava flow licked up rivers, 
mountain villages and coffee plantations. So terrific 
was the heat that Hilo district, where normally rains 
fall every day of the year, was parched with drouth 
for nine months. 

On June 7th the flow was five miles from Hilo, in 
several streams, one of them pushing straight for the 
town. The populace was panic stricken. Many 
abandoned their homes and moved their effects. On 
the 26th a lava lake which had been forming, burst 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 383 

away and the fiery current poured rapidly down a 
river bed nearly into the town. A day of solemn 
prayer and supplication was observed by the whole 
populace. It was thought only a miracle could save 
their homes. Soon the hadean fires had entered the 
very suburbs. The explosions averaged fifteen a 
minute; the progress was 500 feet a day, and the 
river's length was fifty miles. Mauna Loa was vomit- 
ing millions of tons daily. 

But the prayers of the Hiloans were heard. At the 
very gates of the city the river stopped and turned 
back. The fires of the volcano suddenly ceased, just 
nine months and five days from the first outbreak. 
One more day's action and the lava would have swept 
over the town and destroyed the harbor. 

Kilauea, the best known of all the great craters is 
on the southern flank of Mauna Loa at an elevation 
of about 4,000 feet. It is quite accessible and visited 
by thousands of tourists. A railroad runs within a 
few miles of the rim. But the summit crater, twenty 
miles up through the clouds, is very hard to reach, 
owing to the rarity of the air and the maze of old and 
jagged lava flows that cross and recross each other 
in zigzags of all varieties. 

The following description condensed from the 
narrative of an eye witness will interest the reader: 

With four mules we left the Kilauea volcano house 
to climb to the summit crater. Every now and then 
the clouds would break away and the black dome of 
Mauna Loa peered through, dazzling our eyes with 
the snow banks, nestling in its canyon like ravines. 
Below us was a table land many miles in extent, the 



384: THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

playground of the fire demons, spotted with craters 
and gashed with fissures, emitting steam and smoke 
of brimstone. The whole region is black with streams 
of spiked lava meandering over it, with charred 
stumps of trees rising out of them. 

Our trail wound upward through young forests of 
Hawaiian mahogany and sandal-wood. Further up 
we picked our way over waves, coils and hummocks 
of pahoehoe and red volcano sand. Horrid cracks 
fifty or sixty feet wide abounded, probably made by 
the earthquakes of ancient convulsions. A black chasm 
of most infernal aspect dogged our ascent on the left. 
Progress was desperately slow, but it was up and up, 
and one scramble followed another. The mules were 
nimble, but devoted much attention to getting up 
rows, kicking and entangling their legs in the lariats. 
The only living being we encountered during the day 
was a wild bull, who, tearing down the mountain side, 
crossed the trail in front of us. Our pack-mules 
stampeded with terror, and were not relassoed for an 
hour. 

The serious incident of the day was an earthquake. 
While I was nerved for any volcanic catastrophe I 
humbly confess that this event was a surprise party. 
It came without warning, and I was pitched over my 
horse's head by his sudden fall to the ground. There 
seemed to be a fearful throbbing and rumbling beneath 
our feet; the trees and grass swayed wildly, great 
rocks were dislodged and bounded down the hillside, 
the earth reeled as if struck by a wave in mid-ocean. 
No one said a word, and after a few moments of pro- 
found stillness, in which each of us held his breath, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 385 

the earth then reeled again with still greater violence. 
Within an hour later there were four more minor 
shocks. The first one produced a feeling of nausea, 
faintness and dread, but after this experience the 
several shocks I passed through on the island only 
brought a sense of exhilaration. I think I could pre- 
scribe them as the doctors do strychnine, for an ex- 
cellent nerve tonic. 

Through this jagged waste of fissures and lava we 
dragged along for seven hours, part of the time among 
the dense clouds that rolled around the mountain, 
clothing it in a murky wet shroud. So thick was this 
fog of the high altitudes that I was quite willing to 
stay within kicking range of the mules for fear of be- 
coming lost. Toward night we arrived at a corral, 
built of lava slabs, for the half wild cattle that roam 
the mountain. Here in a Kanaka house thatched 
with wild grass we were entertained in mountain 
style by several half white wild-bullock catchers. 
They fed us on jerked beef, wild goat steaks and goat's 
milk. We ate squatting on a floor of natural smooth 
pahoehoe, around a calabash of poi, into which all 
dipped their fingers in common. The air was chilly, 
almost frosty, but we rolled up in our blankets and 
slept the sleep of the just. By a careful and conserv- 
ative estimate no less than a million fleas assisted 
in our entertainment. We could hear the baying of 
wild dogs through the night, as they pursued their 
quarries on the mountain side. 

The next morning we engaged as guide a Kanaka 
goat catcher. We also secured fresh mules from the 
rancheros, not because our own had given out, but for 



386 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the reason that the ranch mules were better accus- 
tomed to the rarefied air of the high altitudes. These 
much maligned animals, as nimble as goats and 
monkeys, took us to the summit and back over the 
trackless and horrid waste of jagged lava slabs and 
boulders, enduring hunger, thirst and frost without a 
murmur. 

The forest here was half dead and hung with long, 
yellow moss, which gave the trees the semblance of 
oaks in New England when festooned with frost rime. 
There was a plenty of very coarse grass, but the trees 
grew smaller and smaller as we mounted above the 
clouds. Before noon we reached the timber line, and 
here a halt was made to give our animals the last feed, 
and to gather a packload of firewood. We also did 
some tea-making, egg-boiling and other cooking that 
required the heating of water. This we had been 
warned to do, because no plants, living or dead, are 
found on the summit, and the air is so rare that water 
evaporates before it reaches the heat necessary to cook 
with. 

And now we found that the real business of the 
ascent had only begun; our desperate scrambles up to 
that point were mere child play compared to the dan- 
gerous gymnastics entailed upon ourselves and beasts 
in the last twelve miles. 

Now we entered upon the vast uplands of pahoe- 
hoe, which rise 5,000 feet above the timber line and 
occupy an area of more than 150 square miles. 
Imagine the ocean lashed into choppy billows, forty 
to sixty feet in height, suddenly congealed into black 
jagged rock, and you have a partial conception of the 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 387 

roughness we encountered. In every direction these 
broken surges, tossed and twisted into a thousand fan- 
tastic shapes, wearied our eyes and struck terror to 
our hearts. Broken lava of all kinds, from the com- 
pact boulders of phonolite to the lightest a-a and 
pumice stone, the mere froth of the volcano, was 
strewn around, the whole exceeding in wildness and 
confusion the most extravagant nightmare ever in- 
flicted on man. 

Recollect the vastness of this mountain. It occu- 
pies an area of two thousand square miles, is nearly 
two hundred miles in circumference at its base. It 
rises nearly three miles into the air. A large part of 
its area is a frightful desert, at once the creation and 
the prey of fire, the mightiest force of the universe. 
Struggling, slipping, tumbling, jumping, ledge after 
ledge was surmounted; but still upheaved against the 
glittering sky and dazzling snows, rose new difficul- 
ties to be overcome. Immense bubbles had been 
heaved up by the forces of hades below, and bursting, 
now yawned like the jaws of death. Swift running 
rivers of more recent lava had cleft zigzag furrows 
through the older congealed billows. Massive flows 
had fallen in, exposing caverned depths of jagged out- 
lines. Earthquakes had riven the mountain, split- 
ting its sides and opening deep crevasses. These we 
must either leap or circumnavigate. Horrid streams 
of a-a or raspy porous lava somewhat resembling coke 
in texture and appearance, had to be continously 
skirted. These, after rushing remorselessly over the 
kindlier lavas, had heaped jagged pinnacles of brown 
scoria into impassable walls. 



3S8 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Winding around the bases of the fissured, tossed-up 
hummocks of pahoehoe, leaping from boulder to 
boulder and from one hummock to another, climbing 
up acclivities so steep that the pack-mule rolled back- 
ward twice, and my own catlike animal fell several 
times, moving cautiously over crusts that rang with 
a tomblike hollowness to the tread, stepping over deep 
cracks, which for aught we knew reached to the bot- 
tomless pit; traversing lava lakes, split by earthquakes 
into a thousand fissures; painfully toiling up huge 
mounds of scoria frothed with pumice stone, and again 
for miles surmounting a rolling ocean of billowy, ropy 
lava, we passed the long day under the tropic sun and 
the deep black sky. 

The clouds now heaped themselves around the en- 
tire mountain in brilliant wavy masses, shutting off 
from view all the busy haunts of men, together with 
the black and smoking region of Kilauea crater, a 
hideous waste far below us. For the next twenty- 
four hours all the rest of the world was shut off, and 
we were alone in this trackless inanimate region of 
terror. It is the abode of Death. 

I say inanimate, because in all that tableland of the 
higher sky, there is not a vestige of God's living world. 
Not a goat or a lizard ; not a fly or a gnat, can find sup- 
port in that barren hades of frost, rock and fire. Even 
the hardy plover, which one finds in arctic wastes as 
well as tropic island, were conspicuous by their en- 
tire absence. I found in one spot a puddle of fine dust 
wet with melting snow, and on my return examined 
a vial of it under a powerful microscope. There was 
absolutely not a trace of microbe or plant life in it. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 389 

One could well appreciate in this region the frightful 
desolation that exists on the surface of the moon. 

We were evidently now on the extreme summit of 
the huge dome of Mauna Loa. Not a trace of the 
eruption or the great crater we were searching for 
could be seen. Far away, however, on the distant 
horizon rose a faint white column of smoke. We 
called a halt, reconnoitred and found our pulses beat- 
ing at the rate of ioo a minute. We bathed our heads 
with snow, a precaution learned from expert moun- 
taineers, and tried to eat some food, but our stomachs 
refused to accept it until hours after, when we were 
slightly inured to the rarefied air. We were suffering 
from the nausea of " mountain sickness/' The cold 
was intense. No amount of wraps seemed to avail 
against it. We proceeded in silence, for even the 
effort of conversation seemed to sap our strength. 
For once our Kanakas ceased their interminable 
gabble. 

Onward we toiled, painfully climbing interminable 
terraces and skirting black and seemingly bottomless 
fissures. Our mules were panting heavily, and our 
own breath came as from excoriated lungs. 

Once only our guide went wrong, but recovered 
himself with great sagacity. " Wrong" on Mauna 
Loa means disaster — almost death — for to be lost in 
an impassable a-a field rent with a maze of fathom- 
less fissures, would entail hours, perhaps days, of blind 
struggle with the raspy slag that cuts the feet and 
flesh at every turn. Notwithstanding its porosity, 
a-a is still a bristling aggregate of upright ragged 
adamantine points. 



390 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER , 

Towards night we came upon a fearful river 1 of a-a 
that crossed our route at right angles and it was evi- 
dent that we must conquer it or give up the expedi- 
tion. Our mules did not mind leaping from boulder 
to boulder like goats, but when we compelled them 
to plunge into this seeming death trap I closed my 
eyes with dread. I never again will abuse or ridicule 
a mule, for did not my beautiful animal carry me 
safely over pitfalls and death traps for a quarter of a 
mile, in danger every minute of breaking his legs in 
crevices, slipping down glassy slabs, leaping knee 
deep into frothy pumice and scoria. The fear of the 
brave little animals was pathetic. They trembled 
and strained, cowered and shrank back, breathed hard, 
stumbled and plunged painfully. It was sickening to 
see their blood and torture while struggling and slip- 
ping into cracks. When finally we emerged their legs 
and bellies were torn and splashed with gore. 

The westerning sun was now a red ball on the black 
horizon of the summit. A glad sound reached our 
ears, for we had feared the eruption was over. A 
hoarse angry roar in front told us that Pele, the god- 
dess of fire, was attending strictly to business. We 
actually galloped a mile or two over a smooth plain 
of pahoehoe, until halted by a deep fissure filled with 
ice and snow. In a minute we had flung ourselves 
from the saddles, leaped the crevasse and climbed the 
ridge beyond and faced the awful crater of Mokuaweo- 
weo. It yawned a thousand feet abruptly beneath us, 
with its opposite rim nearly three miles away. The mys- 
tery was solved, for there in front of us was the fear- 
fully grand and beautiful fire fountain, whose reflec- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 391 

tion for six weeks had been seen at a distance of more 
than a hundred miles. At that moment its height 
was more than three hundred feet. 

Behind it was the blackness and desolation of the 
inaccessible crater. The column itself was a lofty 
pillar of brilliant white and yellow fire, far different 
from the gory gleams of the fountains of Kilauea, 
grand in themselves but mere pigmies in comparison 
with this. 

For a while we held our breath with astonishment; 
we were dumb with admiration and awe. 

A sight like this was worth a voyage around the 
globe. We felt that we, of all other mortals, had been 
singled out of the human race of a billion and a half, 
the fortunate observers of a phenomenon of nature 
the grandest and most sublime of any that had been 
witnessed by mortal man! 

So different was it from all other sights, that the 
words of the English language fail to convey an ade- 
quate description; yet I am in duty bound to picture 
it as best I can. 

Far above the region of the clouds, we stood on the 
pinnacle of Mauna Loa, the most tremendous active 
volcano known to man, one hundred and forty-four 
times as large as its noted sister volcano Vesuvius. 
At our feet lay Mokuaweoweo, the most violent and 
vindictive of all the craters of the globe. From her 
abysses have been hurled rivers of fire thirty to forty 
miles in length. The volume of liquid rock ejected 
would cover the state of Ohio several feet deep. 

The fire fountain, the crowning glory of glories, was 
continually changing in size and aspect. Now it was 



392 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

one pillar, a hundred and fifty feet in diameter, like a 
huge Arizona cactus. Then it would separate itself 
into individual columns joined by red upward surges 
at their base. Again it would slowly die down until 
it almost disappeared in the red surf that was wash- 
ing from side to side of the fiery lake. 

" Pele has gone to bed, the show is over for to- 
night," said one of the party. 

Hardly were the words out of his mouth when there 
was a terrific roar, and a white hot pyramid shot into 
the air, huger than ever, and mounted a hundred feet, 
then two, three, four, five and finally reached an alti- 
tude of six hundred feet and broke into a sheaf 
of golden spray that fell for many minutes, laterally 
from the dizzy height in curves to the limits of the lake. 
Though it was nearly three-quarters of a mile away 
we could feel the fiery breath of the goddess in our 
faces, and heard the crash and swash of the falling 
fragments (congealed in the air) like hailstones 
hurtling into a bed of autumn leaves. 

The crater was apparently divided into two lakes, 
that in which the fountain played, and a further one 
at the crater's end, and lower in level. Into the latter 
the lava, welling up with the fountain, was slowly pour- 
ing in a horseshoe Niagara of yellow fire. As the sky 
over our heads blackened and darkness fell swiftly 
into this awful home of the fire gods and Pele, the 
whole dead floor of the crater burst into life and activ- 
ity. A thousand fissures came into view, with little 
lakes and pits and cones, whence gleamed fitful flashes 
of light, reddish-green, yellow and ghastly white, re- 
flections of the fiery industry going on with ceaseless 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

energy below. We could imagine it to be a mighty 
iron foundry wherein the demons and geneii of Yul- 
c:-.r. or the devil himself) were plying their hadean 
trades. We could plainly hear the bellowing of the 
blasts, the thuds of the trip hammers, the wish of 
forges and the clanging of huge furnace doors. 

And now the fountain again shot up. This time it 
was a pyramid of molten gold alternately falling into 
the center and then outwards like a sheaf of ripe oats. 
The confiscations gleamed as the stars of a bursting 
rocket when the hot rocks exploded and scattered over 
the broken surface of the lake. 

The scene again changed. The fountain was divided 
into several columns, and they launched hundreds of 
feet into the air. descending and falling with marvel- 
:us velocity. The great cauldron boiled from cliff 
to clirT and angry red waves like the billows of the 
ocean, dashed themselves from bank to bank. Under 
the clirls we could look far into caverns dripping with 
red lava, through which the waves swirled and bel- 
lowed like the mighty " bulls of Bashan." Again all 
was quiet. The whole lake blackened over from edge 
to edge for a few minutes. A sudden roar and a mile 
black ice cracked into a thousand slabs, rocking and 
crashing against each other. One by one thev stood 
on their ends and sank down into the bottomless pit. 
Then the fountain played again. 

The largest volcano crater in the world is Haleakala 

the house of the seed), Island of Maui, Hawaiian 

group. It has been extinct for ages, but so high is 

the elevation ( 10,000 feet) and so dry the air, that the 



394 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

latest flow of lava — pahoehoe — is as fresh and black 
as when first vomited forth many thousand years ago. 
The crater occupies the whole summit of the huge 
mountain. It is 2,000 feet deep (nearly perpendicu- 
lar), ten miles long and five miles broad. It could 
accommodate the city of Chicago and some of its 
suburbs. To make a tour of its rim would require a 
three days' journey. The floor or bottom of the 
crater is a scene of wild chaos, deep fissures, black 
lava flows, canyons, mountains of brick colored scoria, 
smooth cones of red cinders, banks of ashes a thous- 
and feet high, jagged cliffs and yawning crater holes. 
Some of the cinder cones are five hundred feet high, 
but look like ant hills from the lofty crater rim. The 
cloud effects of Haleakala are the grandest in the 
world. From over the ocean come regiments of white 
feathery banks in long lines likes flocks of wild geese. 
They storm the mountain heights and pour over the 
crater's rim in huge Niagaras of eider-down. Then 
they fill the great chasm to its rim and boil and seethe 
like white froth swirling in a mighty caldron. They 
rise, and you find yourself alone on a peak, shut out 
from the world below. You gaze abroad and see 
nothing above but the blue bleak sky, and below you, 
in the cloud effects, oceans of white glaciers, snow 
banks, icebergs and ice gorges for a hundred miles in 
every direction. When the sun rises the clouds shape 
themselves into a huge panorama of the Himalayas 
and Andes, interspersed with minarets of gold, castles 
and battlements of white silver, dark ravines laden 
with fallen snow; forests of rose colored pines, and 
Egyptian pyramids in purple and olive green. 



CHAPTER XXX 

LESSER DISASTERS IN THE UNITED STATES 

Charleston, South Carolina, Partly Destroyed by 
Earthquake in 1886 — Fearful Flood in Conemaugh 
Valley That Wiped out Johnstown and Killed 2,280 
Persons — Galveston Devastated by Tremendous 
Storm That Drove Waters of the Gulf Over the City, 
Blotting Out 8,000 Lives. 

Among the earthquakes that have been experienced 
in the United States, the one which partly destroyed 
Charleston, South Carolina, in 1886 ranks second only 
to the recent seismic convulsion in California. In this 
disaster forty lives were lost, and property valued at 
$5,000,000 was destroyed. The city was virtually 
ruined. Two-thirds of the houses were rendered un- 
inhabitable, railroads and telegraph lines were wrecked, 
and fires that broke out added to the devastation. 

Nature gave a slight warning of this catastrophe, 
for on the morning of August 28th a slight shock was 
felt throughout North and South Carolina and part of 
Georgia. But little attention was paid to this tremor. 
The night of August 31st, about 10 o'clock, there was 
a tremendous convulsion that shattered the city. Nine 
other shocks followed, but the first wrought most of 
the damage. It was felt throughout the country be- 
tween the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi River, 
and as far north as Wisconsin. 

397 



398 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

A writer in the Charleston News and Courier, in his 
description of the disaster, said: 

" It is not given to many men to look in the face of 
the destroyer and yet live; but it is little to say that 
the group of strong men who shared the experiences 
of that awful night will carry with them the recollec- 
tion of it to their dying day. None expected to escape. 
A sudden rush was simultaneously made for the open 
air, but before the door was reached all reeled together 
to the tottering wall and stopped, feeling that hope 
was vain; that it was only a question of death within 
the building or without, to be buried by the sinking 
roof or crushed by the toppling walls. Then the up- 
roar slowly died away in seeming distance. 

" The earth was still, and O, the blessed relief of 
that stillness ! But how rudely the silence was broken! 
As we dashed down the stairway and out into the 
street, already on every side arose the shrieks, the 
cries of pain and fear, the prayers and wailings of ter- 
rified women and children, commingling with the 
hoarse shouts of excited men. Out in the street the 
air was filled with a whitish cloud of dry, stifling dust, 
through which the gaslights flickered dimly. On every 
side were hurrying forms of men and women, bare- 
headed, partly dressed, many of whom were crazed 
with fear and excitement. Here a woman is supported, 
half fainting, in the arms of her husband who vainly 
tries to soothe her while he carries her to the open 
space at the street corner, where present safety seems 
assured; there a woman lies on the pavement with up- 
turned face and outstretched limbs, and the crowd 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 399 

passes her by, not pausing to see whether she be dead 
or alive. 

" A sudden light flares through a window overlook- 
ing the street, it becoming momentarily brighter, and 
the cry of fire resounds from the multitude. A rush is 
made toward the spot. A man is seen through the 
flames trying to escape. But at this moment, some- 
where — out at sea, overhead, deep in the ground — is 
heard again the low, ominous roll which is already too 
well known to be mistaken. It grows louder and 
nearer, like the growl of a wild beast swiftly approach- 
ing his prey. All is forgotten in the frenzied rush for 
the open space, where alone there is hope of security, 
faint though it be. 

" The tall buildings on either hand blot out the skies 
and stars and seem to overhang every foot of ground 
between them; their shattered cornices and coping, the 
tops of their frowning walls, appear piled from both 
sides to the center of the street. It seems that a 
touch would now send the shattered masses left stand- 
ing down upon the people below, who look up to them 
and shrink together as the tremor of the earthquake 
again passes under them, and the mysterious rever- 
berations swell and roll along, like some infernal drum 
beat summoning them to die. It passes away, and 
again is experienced the blessed feeling of deliverance 
from impending calamity, which it may well be be- 
lieved evokes a mute but earnest offering of mingled 
prayer and thanksgiving from every heart in the 
throng." 

Another instance of swift and sudden death and de- 
struction in America was the flood that swept down 



400 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the Conemaugh Valley in Pennsylvania on May 31, 
1889. It brought death to about 2,280 persons and 
destroyed $10,000,000 of property. The beautiful and 
rich valley was turned into a scene of utter devastation, 
and the city of Johnstown and numerous smaller towns 
were wiped out. 

The Conemaugh Valley lies on the western slope of 
the Alleghany Mountains, running from South Fork, 
southwesterly to Johnstown and thence sixteen miles 
northwest to Florence. Extending about six miles 
from South Fork is a lateral valley at the head of which 
was the Conemaugh Lake reservoir, owned by a Pitts- 
burg hunting and fishing club. It was about 275 feet 
above the level of Johnstown and held a greater vol- 
ume of water than any other reservoir in the United 
States, being two and one-half miles long and one and 
one-half miles wide. Its dam was 1,000 feet long, no 
feet high and ninety feet thick at the base. The people 
of the valley had long been afraid this dam would give 
way in time of flood, and that is what happened. Pro- 
tracted rains had raised the level of the lake, and 
though attempts were made to relieve the pressure by 
opening a sluiceway, the center of the dam broke at 
3 o'clock, May 31st. 

In one hour the reservoir was empty, and the tre- 
mendous body of water went racing down the valley 
with incredible rapidity. Buildings, trees, rocks — 
everything was swept along in that awful flood. The 
waters reached Johnstown, about eighteen miles from 
the lake, in seven minutes and the horrors that ensued 
in that city were beyond description. The debris car- 
ried by the flood battered to pieces everything the 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 401 

water did not wash away, and few of the inhabitants 
had time to escape. Against the railway bridge was 
piled up a solid mass of shattered houses, trees and 
other wreckage in which were mingled the corpses of 
hundreds of victims. The tangled heap could be re- 
moved only by the use of dynamite and fire. 

Galveston, Texas, was the victim of a terrible visita- 
tion on Saturday, September 8, 1900, when a most vio- 
lent tempest drove the waters of the gulf over the city 
in a devastating flood. Probably 8,000 persons per- 
ished, though the exact number never could be known, 
for the receding waters carried countless bodies out 
to sea. Sixty-seven blocks in the most thickly popu- 
lated part of the city were razed and enormous dam- 
age was done to other sections by the force of the 
flood and the wreckage it carried inland. 

The wind attained a velocity of 120 miles an hour 
and piled up the debris 'inland in a long ridge twenty 
feet high beneath which were buried hundreds of men, 
women and children and domestic animals. In six 
hours the work of destruction was completed, but for 
days the horror of it increased. The bay was filled 
with floating corpses and the scenes were so heart- 
rending that men and women were driven to insanity 
and suicide. Robbers and ghouls prowled about the 
wrecked city and could not be stopped in their horrid 
work by the most drastic measures. The city was 
placed under martial law, but even the soldiers could 
not preserve order, though they killed more than a 
hundred looters. The city was in darkness and big 
bonfires were lighted at various places that the soldiers 
might do their work. Thirty-three negro vandals were 



402 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

tried by court martial and executed. One of them had 
in his pockets twenty-three human fingers with rings 
on them. 

" I was going to take the train at midnight and was 
at the station when the worst of the storm came up," 
said an eye-witness. "There were 150 people in the 
depot, and we all remained there for nine hours. The 
back part of the building blew in Sunday morning and 
I returned to the Tremont House. The streets were 
literally filled with dead and dying people. The Sis- 
ters' Orphan Hospital'/ was a terrible scene. I saw 
there over ninety dead children and eleven dead Sis- 
ters. We took the steamer Allen Charlotte across the 
bay, up Buffalo bay, over to Houston in the morning, 
and I saw fully fifty dead bodies floating in the water. 
I saw one dray with sixty-four dead bodies being drawn 
by four horses to the wharves, where the bodies were 
unloaded on a tug and taken out in the gulf for burial. " 

Mr. Wortham, ex-secretary of state, after an inspec- 
tion of the scene, made this statement: " Fully seven- 
ty-five per cent of the business portion of the town is 
wrecked, and the same percentage of damage is to be 
found in the residence district. Along the wharf front 
great ocean steamers have bodily dumped themselves 
on the big piers, and lie there, great masses of iron and 
wood that even fire cannot totally destroy. The great 
warehouses along the water front are smashed in on 
one side, unroofed and gutted throughout their length ; 
their contents either piled in heaps or along the streets. 
Small tugs and sailboats have jammed themselves into 
buildings, where they were landed by the incoming 
waves and left by the receding waters. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 403 

" Houses are packed and jammed in great confusing 
masses in all the streets. Great piles of human bodies, 
dead animals, rotting vegetation, household furniture, 
and fragments of the houses themselves, are piled in 
confused heaps right in the main streets of the city. 
Along the gulf front human bodies are floating around 
like cordwood." 

All the country contributed to the relief of Galves- 
ton, and the city has been rebuilt, better than before, 
and guarded against a recurrence of the disaster. The 
grade of the city has been raised many feet and a mas- 
sive sea wall protects it from the waters of the gulf. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

HOW EARTHQUAKES AFFECT THE GLOBE 

Professor Garret P. Servis, the Distinguished Astron- 
omer Gives an Easy-to-Understand Explanation — 
Earth, Weighted at the Poles with Ice, Sinks and 
Rises Causing Tremendous Strain — The Globe 
Cracks With the Overpowering Weight — Strange 
and Uncanny Things Thkt Earthquakes Do — What 
Portions of the United States Are Immune From 
Earthquake Shocks. 

Since man began to speculate upon the wonders of 
nature the quakes of the earth at intervals have been 
the cause of his greatest wonder and fear. Primitive 
people made gods of the invisible forces that shook the 
mighty globe under their feet, and spouted forth mol- 
ten masses from the interior of the mountains to sweep 
away whole tribes at a breath. 

Science is yet very much at sea regarding the real 
cause of seismic disturbances. Learned men rarely 
agree in their explanations of these phenomena. One 
of the most interesting writers on scientific subjects is 
Professor Garret P. Servis. He has the faculty of lay- 
ing before the reader not conversant with scientific 
terms his ideas in simple and straightforward English. 
In a recent article on the San Francisco earthquake 
printed in the New York Journal, he goes to some 
length to describe the cause, as he understands it, of 

404 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 405 

these terrible outbursts of the earth's strength and 
fury. 

" The two tremendous convulsions," he says, " which 
within a fortnight have laid waste the environs of Ve- 
suvius and temporarily wiped out of existence one of 
the greatest cities on the American continent have 
brought to the front a theory of the cause of earth- 
quakes and of volcanic action that presents our revolv- 
ing globe to us in an entirely new and a very startling 
light. According to this theory, the cataclysms re- 
ferred to were caused by the earth, as it whirls on its 
8,000-mile axis, getting a little off its centre, like an 
ill-balanced wheel, and striving, with a sudden shift, 
to recover its equilibrium. 

" It has been known for a score of years past that the 
axis of rotation of the earth has what may best be de- 
scribed as a ' wobble.' By carefully watching the di- 
rection of certain stars astronomers have found that the 
ends of the earth's axis do not always point toward 
exactly the same opposite spots in the sky, but swing 
about a little, thus introducing lost motion into the ter- 
ritorial mechanism. When the axis sways out of its 
mean position the effect upon the earth must be sim- 
ilar to that produced in a balance wheel that is a little 
loose on its axle. A very sudden change of this kind 
would knock everything to pieces on the surface of the 
earth, send the oceans roaring over the borders of the 
continents, and involve the whole force of the globe in 
ruin. 

" Fortunately the changes, while in some cases rapid, 
do not occur in the manner of jolts. The earth's axis 
of rotation swings with a somewhat gradual motion, 



406 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

now approaching its mean position, which corresponds 
with the geographical axis running through what we 
call the North and South poles, and again departing 
from it. The amount of departure never amounts to 
more than about sixty feet as measured on the earth's 
surface at one of the poles, and on the average it is not 
more than half of that amount. This, however, is quite 
sufficient to produce (even though the change from one 
position of the axis to another is not brought about in- 
stantaneously) very great effects upon the earth. 

" One can easily imagine that a globe 8,000 miles in 
diameter, and weighing no less than six sextillions of 
tons — an inconceivable number! — whirling about an 
axis so swiftly that a point on its equator travels more 
than a thousand miles an hour, cannot have its axis 
shifted, however little, without feeling the strain 
throughout its enormous bulk. A great steel flywheel 
if overweighted on one side may be caused to burst 
asunder through the effects of the unbalanced forces. 

" How, then, can the massive earth experience such 
an effect without disastrous consequences? This, in 
brief, is the argument of those who hold the view that 
the recent cataclysms in the Old World and the New 
are due to the wobbling of the earth's axis. They aver 
that the erratic motion, reacting upon the interior of 
the great globe, must necessarily strain the subterran- 
ean rocks, thus producing volcanic eruptions and earth- 
quakes. Professor John Milne, the distinguished ex- 
pert in earthquake studies, is represented as urging 
this view in opposition to the generally accepted opin- 
ion of geologists that seismic disturbances result only 
from readjustments of the crust of the globe in conse- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 407 

quence of the gradual cooling and shrinking of its in- 
terior. 

" But the question then arises: To what cause is the 
unbalancing of the earth, resulting in the wobbling of its 
axis, to be ascribed? Sir Norman Lockyer, the Eng- 
lish astronomer, is quoted as replying that it is due 
indirectly to the present sunspot maximum, which has 
vastly increased the amount of solar energy exerted 
upon the earth, and directly to the melting away of the 
snows about one of the earth's poles consequent upon 
that increase of solar action. This, it is averred, is suf- 
ficient to remove from its ordinary place about the pole 
a weight of ice and snow represented by incalculable 
millions of tons. The water formed by melting is swept 
equatorward through the oceans, in consequence of 
centrifugal tendency, and thus one end of the earth's 
surface is rendered sensibly lighter than the other, and 
a swinging and wobbling of the great axis results. 
Others are disposed to attribute the cause of the change 
in the axis to alterations in the distribution of the in- 
ternal matter of the globe. The result, in either case, 
would be virtually the same. 

" In view of this hypothesis it becomes interesting to 
inquire: At which pole has the melting of the ice oc- 
curred? The reply plainly is: At the South Pole, be- 
cause the recent intense activity of the sun, as revealed 
by the presence of gigantic spots upon its surface, oc- 
curred during the summer of the southern hemisphere, 
at the time when the South Polar regions were pre- 
sented toward the sun, and also at a time when the 
earth was about three million miles nearer to the sun 
than it will be next July. That there may be truth in 



408 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the idea that the solar radiation has been extraordinar- 
ily effective in its action upon the vast accumulation of 
ice on the Antarctic continent is indicated by the fact 
that the past winter has been one of unusual mildness 
throughout the northern hemisphere. This being the 
case, we may well suppose that the corresponding sum- 
mer in the southern hemisphere has been uncommonly 
hot. 

" Granting, then, the asserted lightening of the South 
Polar end of the earth from the causes mentioned, an 
increase of the wobbling of the axis should naturally 
result, and upon this, according to the hypothesis, the 
sudden cataclysmal outburst of subterranean forces is 
due. If the theory is correct we must be thankful that 
the earth's axis does not fall from one position into an- 
other with a sudden jerk, for if it did there might be no 
one left alive to record the awful consequences! 

" It is to be noted, in connection with the foregoing, 
that the unusual activity of the sun has not yet ceased, 
and that if it should continue during the coming sum- 
mer to pour upon us an uncommon quantity of heat, 
the obvious consequence would be to melt away the 
Arctic ice and snow also, and thus, by removing weight 
from the northern axial end of the planet, to restore the 
balance, upset by what had occurred at the southern 
end. With this restoration the axis of rotation would 
tend to resume its mean position, although the change 
back again might result in fresh internal disturbances. 

" There are also some who, like the Abbe Moreux, of 
the Bourges Observatory, France, attribute earth- 
quakes and volcanic eruptions to a more direct influ- 
ence of the sun upon the earth at maximum periods of 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 409 

sun-spottedness. But they have not succeeded in mak- 
ing it clear how this supposed influence is exerted, 
ascribing it in a general way to changes of electric po- 
tential and to atmospheric influences. It must be said 
in fairness to the Abbe Moreux, however, that as long 
ago as last October he predicted that ' as the solar ac- 
tivity will shortly diminish, it is highly probable that we 
shall have to record earthquakes toward March or April 
next/ This may be regarded either as a happy coin- 
cidence or as a true example of scientific foresight, ac- 
cording as the theory of solar influence upon the seis- 
mic conditions of the earth shall stand or fall in the 
light of subsequent research. 

" But quite independent of this explanation of the 
San Francisco earthquake by such distinguished scien- 
tists as I have already named — Professor Milne, Sir 
John Lockyer, Abbe Moreux and others — we may 
briefly consider here the commonly accepted scientific 
explanation of the earthquakes which are so frequently 
felt from day to day in various parts of the earth. 

" The great primary cause of all earthquakes, and of 
volcanic eruptions, is the gradual, or so-called secular, 
shrinking of the body of the earth. Our globe is like a 
shrivelled apple, whose outer peel has been thrown into 
a thousand wrinkles by the shrinkage of the central 
core. As the shrinkage is still going on the wrinkling 
of the surface continues. When the shrinkage ceases 
the globe will be dead, like the moon, but then also life 
will practically cease upon the surface, for the water 
will be withdrawn into the interior, and the atmosphere 
will be profoundly changed in composition, and may 
largely disappear. The moon shows us what we are 



410 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

coming to, and Mars, perhaps, represents an intermed- 
iate stage of planetary decline. 

" After a series of great earthquakes and volcanic ex- 
plosions there is a change in the level of certain portions 
of the earth's crust. The rocks have settled together, 
and they will resist further changes until the shrinking 
beneath has gone on so far that the power of resistance 
is no longer sufficient to prevent a catastrophe. Then 
another break or slip, and consequent settling, occurs, 
and the rock crust is rent and shaken once more. 

'■' The local results of these changes, however, are not 
always a lowering of the level at the surface. Taking 
the globe as a whole, it must be gradually, very, very 
slowly, getting smaller; but in certain localities its 
crust is thrust up higher, just as there are local eleva- 
tions on the rind of a shrivelling apple, although taken 
altogether the apple shrinks in size. 

" It is usually in the places where such up-thrusts oc- 
cur that earthquakes are most violent. These places 
lie along lines of weakness, or what may be called 
immense cracks and fissures of the earth's crust. There 
the crust, having once been broken, does not mend 
again, and every successive disturbance occurring be- 
neath it reopens the old wound. 

" It was the misfortune of San Francisco to be situ- 
ated very close to one of these fissures. There is a 
line of old volcanoes following the Pacific Coast from 
Alaska southward, and off the shore of California there 
is an abrupt deepening of the ocean bottom, corre- 
sponding to a line of fracture in the earth's crust. This 
line follows in a general way the whole western edge 
of the American continent, and whenever there is a 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 411 

deep-seated convulsion in the interior of the globe, this 
huge crack is wrenched and the rocks strain and groan 
under the tremendous forces to which they are sub- 
jected. Then, at one point or another, or perhaps at 
several points nearly simultaneously, a break, or a slip, 
occurs, and an earthquake instantly follows. " 

When one begins to speculate upon earthquakes 
the first question that presents itself is: Why is it 
that certain localities have a perpetual pest of earth- 
quakes while other spots are disturbed only once or 
twice during all historical and legendary times. Geol- 
ogists believe the strength of the earth's crust deter- 
mines the matter. 

The crust is not necessarily thicker in Colorado or 
Wyoming where something confers practical immun- 
ity than in California, where earthquakes big and little 
are known to every one. But the mountainous struct- 
ure of the unshaken states doubtless runs down firm 
and without flaw to the molten rock layer which lies 
between the cooled crust and the glowing centre of the 
earth which is held solid by pressure. 

As the cooling processes go on, shrinking must occur. 
The molten layer reduces its outward pressure from 
year to year and the pressure of atmosphere and crust 
itself must make it give periodically in its weakest 
places. 

Where great solid beds of rock support the surface 
the molten layer may retreat and leave a sort of arch 
above it capable of resisting gravity for a long time. 
When once the earth gives way in any spot it has a 
tendency to break there again. 

Along the Pacific Coast geologists have located 



412 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

what they call a fault. It is like a broken piece in a 
man's skull. The atmospheric pressure forces it down 
whenever the fluids beneath permit. 

If it fell all at once there would be one terrible earth- 
quake which would probably knock down every build- 
ing in the world. Tidal waves would surge across the 
continents and only a few mountaineers would escape 
death. 

Instead it slips here and there a few feet at a time 
and the scraping of the edges of the wound sends out 
vibrations of varying strength. Most of them are 
tremors only discernible by delicate instruments. Oc- 
casionally an extra large area, long undermined, is held 
up by an obstruction of some sort. When, at last, 
it gives way a powerful commotion is caused. Either 
a tidal wave sweeps the coasts or an earthquake shakes 
the land, such as felled San Francisco, or both occur. 
Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, and 
the southern half of New Mexico are involved in the 
great Pacific " fault," as is Mexico and most of Texas. 

Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, the eastern portions of 
South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas and the northern 
half of New Mexico have little to fear from seismic 
disturbance. 

From this line of immunity to the Atlantic coast a 
series of lesser faults make earthquakes possible at any 
time, though up to the time of the Charleston earth- 
quake the Atlantic coast rested in fancied security. 

Coasts and islands are favorite locations for faults, 
and ocean bottoms seem to be comparatively weak 
spots in the crust. 

It is theoretically possible for a " fault " to heal and 




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bring immunity to the surface districts, above and 
around it, but scientific study of the earth is not old 
enough to record such an event. In the meantime, in 
forecasting the probability of earthquakes, the past has 
proved an almost unfailing index of the future. 

The libraries of the world are full of accounts of 
seismic disturbances. Since earthquakes began to be 
studied in the science observatories in the last fifty 
years, a mass of extraordinary facts have been col- 
lected, many of which have completely stumped the ex- 
perts to explain. 

It is an established fact, but not at all understood, 
that birds and animals can foretell the coming of an 
earthquake. Before the disturbances in Chili in 1822 
and 1835 immense flocks of sea birds flew screeching 
about as if crazed with alarm several hours before the 
shocks began. At the same time it was noticed that 
all the dogs sneaked out of the doomed city of Tal- 
cahuano and safely reached the open country before 
the earth tremors began. 

Some of the natives of Caracas possess oracular quad- 
rupeds, such as cats, dogs and jerboas, which seem to 
have the unaccountable faculty of anticipating com- 
ing earthquakes. The natives watch these animals 
and whenever they exhibit their peculiar spasms of 
uneasiness the alarm is sounded and the natives flee 
to the open country. 

If a person is out of doors and walking an earthquake 
sufficiently strong to unroof houses and knock down 
chimneys may pass unnoticed. Yet a much slighter 
tremor will terrify any one in the top of a tall build- 



416 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ing on account of the exaggerated angular movement 
given by the building's height. . 

The surface of the earth has been known to actually 
move backward and forward a distance of six feet. 
When the vibrations are strong enough to cause a great- 
er wave motion than this the limit of the earth's elas- 
ticity is exceeded and the ground breaks in great cracks 
of immense depth. Almost all large earthquakes have 
produced these. 

It often happens that these fissures are many feet in 
width. At the Calabrian upheaval of 1783, one or two 
of the crevices were more than one hundred feet wide 
and two hundred feet deep. 

Human beings, animals, houses, and even boats 
have been swallowed up by these cracks and fallen to 
destruction in the bowels of the earth. 

People fleeing from an earthquake have had the 
ground yawn beneath them long enough to engulf them 
and then close up, leaving no sign. In the village of 
San Antonio, in the Philippines, a child fell into a 
small crack which instantly closed. Its parents later 
dug down a short distance and found the body crushed 
beyond recognition. 

Boiling water, noxious fumes and sometimes flames 
belch from the cracks to an immense height. At the 
time of the Jamaica earthquake men who had fallen 
into crevices were later shot up from the depths on a 
flood of boiling water. Salt water gushed up in Sicily 
in 1692. 

Fish were killed along the coast of New Zealand in 
1855. Unbearable sulphurous fumes poured out of the 
ground during the Jamaica earthquake which caused 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 41? 

a general sickness from which 3,000 persons died. 
Wherever these fumes came in contact with flame they 
took fire. 

An intense reddish light sometimes streams from 
these cracks when there is no sign of flames. 

Lakes are disturbed during even distant shocks. 
While Lisbon was being destroyed not only European 
lakes, but those in America were agitated by huge 
waves. The Thames river during the shocks of 11 58, 
dried up for a time so that it could be crossed on foot 
even at London. 

The baths at Topitz, Bohemia, which are known to 
have flowed evenly since their discovery, A. D. 762, 
boiled over at the first shock of the Lisbon earthquake. 
Then the spring grew muddy, stopped for a minute, 
belched quantities of red ochre and finally returned to 
its original flow. 

In wells water often rises to the top and flows over. 
In other cases they dry up. In Neufchatel many wells 
filled with mud. 

In the great earthquake of Concepcion in 1835, the 
neighboring coast line suddenly rose five feet above 
sea level. Later it sank three feet. A rocky flat off 
the island of Santa Maria rose with a roaring sound 
above high water mark and remained covered with gap- 
ing and putrefying mussel shells still attached to the 
bed upon which they had lived. The island of Lemus, 
in the Chronos Archipelago was suddenly elevated eight 
feet. 

A convulsion of the rocky crust in the valley of the 
Mississippi, near the mouth of the Ohio, formed lakes 
twenty miles long in the course of an hour. 



418 THE SAN F&AMC1SC0 GISASf ER 

The little territory of Causa Nova, in Calabria, sank 
twenty-nine feet during an earthquake without throw- 
ing down a single house. 

Sometimes these changes have taken place gradually 
and sometimes with violence. Mountains have been 
toppled over, valleys have been filled, cities have been 
submerged or buried. 

Shocks are rarely felt deep in the earth. At the 
Comstock Lode in Colorado, however, twenty-four 
shocks were once felt. In Virginia City, in 1882, an 
earthquake almost strong enough to be destructive was 
felt on the surface, while in the mines it was barely 
perceptible. 

An earthquake starts on its journey like a cannon ball 
at its highest speed. The further it goes the slower it 
travels. The preliminary tremors which may be waves 
of compression travel much faster than the main shock. 
The sidewise wriggling motion is the most persistent 
of all and travels farthest, but not fastest. 

Buildings and other objects destroyed by earth- 
quakes fall according to fixed laws. When a house 
tumbles down it falls to the side which has most doors 
and windows. It never falls on the side where the 
masonry is unweakened by openings. Walls at right 
angles to the direction taken by the shock are more 
likely to be overthrown than those parallel to it. 

When walls of houses crack the crack always takes 
in as many doors and windows as possible. Light 
bodies are as easily overturned as heavy ones. Mallet 
records that several haystacks were overturned during 
an earthquake at Naples. 

Severe earthquakes will overturn houses bodily. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 419 

Japan, where earthquakes are frequent, has found earth- 
quake proof buildings most necessary. Several light 
house towers are built with foundations resting on 
great steel shot. When the shock comes the building 
slides about on the shot and suffers no harm. 

Flat-roofed houses, broad and low, with roof and up- 
per walls light, are the best shock resisters. Many who 
live in constant dread of earthquakes rely upon the 
furniture of their rooms for protection in emergencies. 
Tables and bedsteads built with steel braces would sup- 
ply a place of refuge from falling beams. 

Earthquake lamps are so made that they will go out 
if upset. In South America many provident people 
have earthquake coats hanging near their door. The 
pockets are kept stocked with provisions and neces- 
saries for a night spent in the open. 

On hilltops the motion is less severe than in the val- 
leys, which would seem to conflict with the exagger- 
ated motion of the tops of buildings. 

In certain parts of South America, there appear to 
exist tracts of ground which are practically exempt 
from earthquakes, whilst the whole country around is 
violently shaken. It would seem as if the shock passes 
beneath such a district as water passes beneath a bridge, 
and for this reason these places are called " earthquake 
bridges." 

To a ship at anchor the vibrations of an earthquake 
are communicated by prodigious yanks on the cable. 
The crew of a warship in Yokohama harbor thought 
the vessel had grounded from the sound communicated 
through the cable. Vessels eighty miles at sea record- 



420 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

ed the shocks like a series of sudden blows of pro- 
jectiles. 

Masts and cordage were broken on board ships in 
the harbor of New Pisco in 1716 though no disturb- 
ance of the water was visible. Other cases are known 
where cannon have jumped from the decks on which 
they rested. 

Sea waves often accompany earthquakes if they orig- 
inate out to sea. Sometimes these follow, but usually 
they precede the shock. 

At the earthquake of St. Thomas the water receded 
before the first shock; after the second it returned with 
such force that it landed the U. S. ship Monongahela 
high and dry. Another American ship, the Wateree, 
was left a quarter of a mile inland the same year in 
Africa. 

At the Jamaica earthquake the sea drew back more 
than a mile, and at Pisco it receded two miles and did 
not return for three hours. The greatest sea wave re- 
corded was 210 feet high when it broke, in 1737, on the 
coast of Lupatka. 

On land, earthquakes often cause fixed bodies, such 
as tombstones, obelisks, chimneys, etc., to rotate. 
Rows of trees are left zig-zag and out of order. 

The greatest depth from which an earthquake can 
originate is estimated at thirty miles. 

There are more than 400 known volcanoes, of which 
225 are active. They are commonly in centres of earth- 
quake disturbance. These disturbances usually run 
lengthwise of valleys and mountain chains seldom 
crossing them. Indian earthquakes have a direction 
parallel to the Valley of the Ganges. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 421 

It is estimated that 10,000 earthquakes originate each 
year, and that half start under the ocean. 

Earthquakes have seasons. For northern hemis- 
phere the maxima are in January, with also a slight 
prevalence in August and October. The fewest are in 
May, June and July. Shocks are more prevalent dur- 
ing the night. 

After a severe shock there is usually a sudden fall 
of temperature. It is quite generally believed that the 
centre of the earth is solid from pressure and the out- 
side cru.st from cooling. Between the two a viscous 
layer of molten matter is supposed to exist. Earth- 
quakes would have their origin above this layer. 

Looking at a straight stretch of railroad track dur- 
ing a shock the vibrations are clearly visible. They can 
be seen approaching with terrifying speed in the form 
of curves in the rails. The track looks like an im- 
mense wriggling serpant, and a train of cars wobbles 
and wriggles like a caterpillar unless thrown from the 
track. 

The direct backward and forward motion is most de- 
structive, though the combined wriggling and up and 
down motion is the most terrifying to the senses. 
Towers and the tops of flexible buildings move in a cir- 
cular path. 

The tremors of the San Francisco earthquake trav- 
eled to Washington, a distance of more than 3,000 miles, 
in less than eight minutes. The motion, when it 
reached Washington, was very slow and deliberate. 
Flad the original shock been no faster it would not have 
been deemed worthy of a line in the newspapers. 



CHAPTER XXXII 

SOME FACTS ABOUT VOLCANOES AND 
EARTHQUAKES 

Cause of Earthquakes and Volcanic Phenomena — 
" Downthrows " — Earthquakes Not Always Vol- 
canic — Study of Crust- Vibrations — Japanese Are 
Expert Seismologists — Great Value of Substances 
Thrown Out by Volcanoes: Cinders; Lava; Hot 
Mud; Sulphur; Pumice. 

Several theories of the earth's interior formation and 
the past and present conditions of its evolution are 
held by modern scientists. Some maintain that there 
are molten masses and nuclei of heat which are not con- 
tinuous, but confined to certain localities, and that the 
main body of the earth is solid. Others stoutly ad- 
here to the theory that the whole interior of our globe 
is a white hot liquid mass, surrounded by a crust, as 
the meat of an egg is contained within its shell. Seis- 
mic convulsions under this theory, would be explained 
by wave motions, like the quivering or breaking of ice 
on ,a lake ; and volcanic upheavals would point to enor- 
mous steam pressure from the breaking through of 
water into the intensely heated masses below the crust. 
To support this theory they point to the following 
facts. The revelations of seismology seem to favor 
this solution of the knotty problem. 

The shaft of the Comstock lode in Virginia City, 



422 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 423 

Nevada (known as the Big Bonanza) now reaches sev- 
eral thousand feet below the earth's surface. So severe 
is the heat in the lowest drifts, that workmen can en- 
dure it but two or three hours, and short shifts are 
resorted to, in order to continue the work. The same 
difficulties are encountered in deep mines in all parts 
of the world. It is a simple problem in mathematics, 
therefore, to estimate how much deeper the miner must 
bore, to reach a rock as white hot in its liquidity as is 
often belched from the crater of Moknaweoweo in 
Hawaii, or Aetna in Sicily. 

From Spectrum analysis we learn that the sun and 
planets are composed of the same chemical constitu- 
ents as the earth, and that Jupiter is as yet a molten 
mass whose crust is still in the first process of forma- 
tion. It is hard to believe that our own planet was 
not at one time a liquid ball like Jupiter, and that the 
radiation of the heat into space has sufficiently cooled 
the surface to make it fit for the habitation of man. 

As all heated masses contract in size when they 
throw off their caloric (instance the tire of a wheel) 
so the liquid interior of the earth must of necessity 
shrink a little as it loses its heat. The result of this 
would be a small space between the hard crust and the 
underlying liquid. For a while the rigidity of the 
shell (composed of hard rock 25 to 50 miles in thick- 
ness) would sustain itself like an arch, but in the course 
of time as this thin cavity extends laterally, the tension 
becomes too great, and something must give way. 
This subsidence or " downthrow " produces the vibra- 
tion or wave motion called an earthquake. As the 
world grows older and the crust thicker earthquakes 



424 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

will become less frequent and less violent; for as the 
crust blanket grows thicker less heat will be radiated 
and the earth shell will become more rigid. 

All regions of the earth, whether they contain vol- 
canoes or not, are subject to earthquakes. The quake 
at Lisbon, the disaster at Charleston, S. C, the terri- 
ble shocks in Assam and in India where no volcanoes 
exist, prove this. On the other hand, nearly all vol- 
canic disturbances are preceded by earthquakes, 
though they seem to affect only the region adjacent to 
the volcano. From this we are led to conclude that 
there are two kinds of earthquakes; one caused by the 
upward pressure or strain of steam and gases under 
the volcano and the adjacent crust; the other the 
" downthrow " vibration, of which the disasters at San 
Francisco and Charleston are examples. The volcano 
quakes are only local and locally dangerous, while the 
latter may affect (as in the Lisbon quake) a quarter of 
the whole globe. It is not generally appreciated that 
earthquakes are nearly as common as rainstorms. 
They happen nearly every day, sometimes every hour 
in some part of the world, with more or less intensity. 
The records of quakes in Japan between 1885 and 1892 
were 8,331, more than 1,000 annually, averaging near- 
ly four daily. According to Prof. Milne, an authority 
in seismology, the world's daily quakes average forty 
or about one each half hour. Since the study of seis- 
mology was undertaken scientifically, there have been 
over 7,000 disastrous quakes and 140,000 noted vibra- 
tions. It is estimated that between fifteen and twenty 
millions of the human race have perished in seismic 
disasters. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 425 

Strangely enough, Japan, a half civilized nation, has 
taken the lead in the study of earthquake phenomena, 
and, from her we shall no doubt (as did the Czar of 
Russia) learn a few things we did not know before. 
The reports of the Seismological Society of Japan have 
already reached beyond the 14th volume. The Jap- 
anese are not only closer observers of the phenomena, 
but they have usually a large and varied stock of do- 
mestic quakes on hand ; while we are compelled to study 
mostly the imported varieties. On the 28th of Octo- 
ber, 1891, Central Japan was shaken by an earthquake, 
which in thirty seconds killed 10,000 people, and in- 
jured 20,000 more. One hundred and twenty-eight 
thousand houses were leveled to the ground, while for- 
est covered mountains were denuded of verdure and 
the soil of hillsides swept into the valleys. The whole 
crust of the earth seemed to crack, and a rift or " fault " 
sixty miles long was made. One side of this rift 
dropped twenty feet below the other. This terrible 
disaster woke up the scientists of Japan to investigate. 
They found that a part of their eastern coast was ris- 
ing and other shores settling. By a close study of 
their seismographs (and they have invented superior 
instruments to our own) they have been able to locate 
the focus of seismic trouble at a point in the ocean east 
of Japan. By this discovery the layers of ocean cables 
have been warned away from the locality, avoiding the 
catastrophe which overtook the Australian cables, all 
three of which were cut off simultaneously by an ocean 
bed quake. 

The Australians taking this as the first act in a dec- 



426 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

laration of war against Great Britain called out with 
great expense their whole army and navy. 

It is beyond the scope of this chapter to detail all the 
late discoveries in this science, but sufficient to say that 
it is a vast and very important field. Scientists hope 
to learn from their seismographs and seismometers 
where the storm centers of the earth's interior are, and 
what points are danger foci. They find that their in- 
struments record disturbances occurring in any part 
of the earth's crust with great rapidity, and that they 
may often place more dependence on a seismogram 
sent by the earthquake itself, than upon a telegram. 
The former tells the truth, while the human message 
may exaggerate or minimize the real gravity of the 
shake. From a comparison of records at different sta- 
tions, on opposite sides of the earth, we learn that the 
body of the earth increases in density from the crust 
downward. It has also been discovered that serious 
quakes have their echoes, which come and go with de- 
creasing force until dissipated. It appears also that 
after a violent shake, there are other vibrations from 
the same focus, which bear such relations to each 
other that seismologists expect to formulate from them 
an equation or curve, which will point exactly to the 
time when complete quiescence will be restored in that 
region. 

From the Japanese investigations we gather the fact 
that the slopes of mountain ranges running sharply to 
low ocean beds have the most frequent and violent 
earthquakes. This is true of Japan, which falls rap- 
idly toward the Pacific bed on the east. We notice 
that the western slopes of the Rockies and Andes are 



THE BAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 427 

frequently shaken while their Atlantic slopes are sel- 
dom visited by quakes. This leads us to conclude that 
the backbone of the American continent, being in real- 
ity a wrinkle or ridge in the earth's crust is still in a 
formative stage. The vast depth of the Pacific near 
the American coast makes the crust both weak and 
thin in that longitude. 

We notice that toward the frozen latitudes seismic 
and volcanic action is less marked, the tropics being 
the most subject to them. From this we cannot but 
argue that the heat of the sun at the equator has re- 
tarded the cooling off of the crust in those regions, 
while the frosts of the higher latitudes have acceler- 
ated its thickening in the temperate and frigid zones. 

Another feature which should not be overlooked is 
the fact that the severest earthquakes occur in regions 
where volcanic rocks are unknown. This would seem 
to argue that the volcano serves as a safety valve for 
the regions adjacent to it. The only earthquakes felt 
in Java and Hawaii are those caused by the throes 
of their respective volcanoes. No such awful catas- 
trophes as those of Caracas, Lisbon or Assam have 
ever been known in lands where volcanoes existed. 
During the terrific explosion of Krakatoa (the most 
violent in history) only a slight tremor of the earth 
was felt. This is considered most remarkable and 
would indicate that earthquakes originate many miles 
below the surface and are propelled by mightier pow- 
ers than gas or steam. In other words the propulsive 
force is the enormous gravity of the crust itself. 

The main business of volcanoes appears to be the 
ejection of ashes. At first thought, this seems to be 



428 THE SAN FfcAMClSCO DISASTER 

a terrible calamity for those whose lands are covered 
by the ejecta. But history proves that in the end the 
cinders are a blessing rather than a curse. These cin- 
ders are made from the lava rock in Vulcan's labora- 
tory and are caused by the contact of water with the 
white hot liquid. They are exploded lava crystals, 
very light and porous in texture. When exposed to 
the erosive action of water, air and plant roots they 
disintegrate into the best kind of soil. The plain on 
which Honolulu is built stands between two old vol- 
canoes, Punchbowl and Diamond Head. Until water 
was piped from the mountain, this plain was dry and 
desert like. But the craters had once strewn it with 
a deep layer of black cinders, very much resembling 
coarse gunpowder. Today these ashes have made 
Honolulu a veritable garden of Eden — one of the most 
beautiful tropical cities on earth. 

It is often wondered why the Italians swarm so 
thickly in the vicinity of Vesuvius, and why so many 
large cities have sprung up in its very shadow. The 
answer is simple. With every throe of the volcano 
a sprinkling of cinders and cosmic dust is rained upon 
the Campagna. Around sixty dollars per acre is paid 
by many tenants as annual rental. The lands are fer- 
tilized as well as devastated. This may sound like a 
paradox, but statistics prove that volcano countries 
are often very prosperous through the richness of their 
soil. The islad of Java, with fifty-six volcanoes, has 
a population of over 15,000,000 (or equal to that of 
Spain), while its sister islands, Borneo and New 
Guinea, without volcanoes, are practically destitute of 
population. The Sandwich Islands or Hawaii are en- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 429 

tirely volcanic. Here sugar lands command from $200 
to $500 per acre, while in Central America, with sim- 
ilar climate and 3,000 miles nearer the world's markets, 
good lands can be secured for less than $5.00 per acre. 
The soil of Sicily, the Azores, Lipari, and many other 
populous islands, has been enriched by the gifts of 
such volcanoes as Aetna, Tenerifle and Stromboli. 

The hot mud showered with a liberal hand from 
craters located near the ocean, is also another source 
of profit to man, though we seldom hear of any thanks 
being returned for it. This fertilizer doubtless comes 
mainly from the bed of the ocean. When " down- 
throws " occur there, the oozy sediment is washed 
through the fissures. Being lighter than the liquid 
rock, it floats on its surface, and is shot up through 
the nearest volcano chimney by the force of steam. 
Of course this ooze is very rich in fertile remains of 
marine animal and plant life, phosphates, etc. 

The usefulness of lava itself to mankind is less ap- 
parent. There are usually two kinds ejected. One is 
quite compact when cooled and requires hundreds of 
years' exposure to moisture and air to disintegrate into 
soil. The other is light and porous. In Hawaii the 
hard species is called pohoehoe, and the spongy kind 
a-a. The latter usually floats on the former while 
the river is in motion, and is piled. up in heaps and raspy 
fragments. This a-a is probably the same material as 
the hard lava, but is churned into a frothy consistence 
by the vapors and gases in the volcano, and the steam 
from wet ground over which the hot river flows. In 
a moist climate the a-a disintegrates to a mould in the 



430 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

course of ten to twenty years, and produces a luxurious 
vegetation. 

The lava and cinders probably represent a compos- 
ite of all the minerals found in the body of the earth. 
As bread and butter contain all the elements of nutri- 
tion for man, so volcanic soil contains all the neces- 
sary food for plant life. It is a remarkable fact that 
Kaui, the oldest island of the Hawaiian group, has the 
deepest soil and produces the biggest crops of sugar 
cane. As high as ten tons of raw sugar to the acre 
has been produced in one crop. 

One of the most curious volcano products is pumice 
or rotten stone, called by sailors " Hell-broth." It is 
seldom known at Hawaii, but the seaside volcanoes 
of the Mediterranean and Java produce it in enormous 
quantities. In color it is white or reddish like chalk. 
It is so light that pieces as large as a man's head will 
often float for years on the ocean until the barnacles 
and shell fish which attach themselves drag it to the 
bottom. Analyzing it we find 72% silica, 17% alumina, 
9% soda and potash, with 2% iron oxide. It is large 
ly used for polishing wood, glass and metals. After 
Krakatoa's terrible explosions, navigators found hun- 
dreds of square miles of the Indian ocean covered with 
it. In some waters the deposit was a foot and a half 
thick, impeding the progress of the steamer. The 
" white cinders thrown out from seaside volcanoes are 
mainly the dust of pumice." Experts in vulcanology 
tell us that pumice is the product of lava and sea 
water; it is a froth that forms on the top of the molten 
rock, after the steam from the ocean deluges has been 
forced through it. 




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Not the least useful product of Vulcan's factory is 
sulphur. Mankind use it mostly in the form of gun- 
powder for destroying each other. Then to compen- 
sate for their hard-heartedness they make a desperate 
effort to restore life by using sulphur baths and sulphur 
vapors. To imitate the volcano in destructiveness, 
they use sulphur matches in burning down large cities 
and other valuable properties. The mineral is used in 
a thousand ways in the arts and manufactures. From 
the enormous quantities thrown out by all volcanoes 
one would imagine that the globe's interior was a vast 
brimstone laboratory. At the crater of Kilauea in 
Hawaii, below and around its rim lie huge banks of 
sulphur miles in extent, hundreds of feet deep and al- 
most pure. For thousands of years millions of tons 
have been accumulating here. From the villainous odor 
of its vapors the native Hawaiians have named it Ku- 
kai-Pele (the ejecta of the Fire God) ; yet, notwith- 
standing this opprobrious epithet, they make a very 
funny use of it in their domestic economy. These brim- 
stone banks are constantly fervent with heat from 
chimneys or blowholes leading down to the lower world. 
The Kanakas on " baking day " bring hither their suck- 
ling pigs, legs of goat, poi fattened puppies, sweet po- 
tatoes, Kalo and yams. After excavating a little cave 
within the sulphur bank they place therein these deli- 
cacies w^ell wrapped in mats and wet banana leaves. 
Then closing the cave with moist earth they leave it 
in the care of the fire goddess. Several hours later the 
oven is opened and the victuals (steam baked) will 
tickle the palate of the daintiest epicure. Verily, how 
are the mighty fallen! Years ago the Kanakas of Ha- 



434: THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

waii worshiped the mighty Fire Goddess Pele, as the 
creator of the Universe, with abject fear; now they 
actually make her " chief cook and bottle washer." 
Strange to say, the viands do not seem to retain any 
of the flavor of the sulphur. 

One of the strangest oddities that comes out of the 
volcano is an article known as Pele's hair, or " the 
tresses of the fire goddess." It has seldom been known 
in any other volcano than Mauna Loa, and even there 
was not found except on the leeward side of Kilauea 
crater. After an active period the ground for miles 
would be covered, and in the fissures, caves and ravines 
it lay yards deep in banks and drifts. On first sight 
one would swear that it was a fleece of coarse brown 
wool, but under a microscope it developed into a mat 
of long silky hairs of spun glass, each ballasted with a 
tiny drop of black lava. For a long time their source 
was an enigma to the scientists, until one day a savant 
forked up a mass of liquid lava from the lake and 
noticed that the fierce wind then blowing whisked 
away from it long threads of a golden color. He then 
noticed to the leeward of the fire fountains as they shot 
into the air were clouds of misty webs like sprites 
floating in the air. Then it dawned on him that the 
wind caught little projections on the fire fountains, 
and these, spinning out long threads, were carried for 
miles like spider webs in the air. They have no com- 
mercial value, except perhaps to assist in enriching 
the soil. When the substance is handled, one's fingers 
are pricked with the sharp spicules. Only when the 
fire fountains are thrown high in the air in a strong 
gale of wind can the Pele's hair be produced. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

LEGENDARY ROMANCES OF CRATERS 

To Mount Shasta. 

I stood where the thunderbolts were wont 
To smite thy Titan's fashioned front; 

I heard huge mountains rock and roll; 
I saw the lightning's gleaming rod 

Reach forth and write on heaven's scroll, 
The awful autograph of God ! 

— Joaquin Miller. 

Sublime expositions in Nature are sure to give rise 
to tales of mystery. The mythology of the ancient 
Norsemen taking root in the imagination of Wagner 
gave the world its grandest operas. From tales of the 
ancient Druids softened by generations of growth with 
the passing of the Britians through the romantic pe- 
riods, the childhood, youthdom and adolescence of a 
nation's development, Shakespeare created his unap- 
proachable plays. Since the days of Homer the poet 
has made free use of the superstitions of his age to form 
the machinery of his dramas. 

In our own country there is lying, almost untouched, 
rich mines of these mythological tales by which the 
native Americans gave expression to their hopes and 
fears for this life and the life to come: 

435 



436 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

" Lo, the poor Indian whose untutored mind 
Sees God in clouds and hears Him in the wind," 

sang Alexander Pope. This is a fine poetic figure, but 
it does not express the height to which the American 
aborigine's thoughts of the great spirit ascended. The 
Indian in his undebauched state was of a highly relig- 
ious nature. It is true he had no written scripture; 
he had no written history of any kind. But like the 
old Asyrians, the shepherd astronomers, he lived night 
and day under the open canopy of the heavens and saw 
the sublime march of the sun through the blue vault of 
day, the unbroken swing of the circling stars at night, 
and was reverent. Out of the feelings born of genera- 
tions of such unbroken contemplation, his mind, un- 
affected by schemes of trade or conquest, formed a 
mythology that makes alive the fields and woods, 
streams, lakes and mountains of the whole continent. 
No flower so small, no blade of grass so humble but to 
the Indian it was the dwelling place of some invisible 
spirit. No lake or mountain but had its ruling god or 
goddess with a train of courtiers obedient to the prince 
to which they were attached. 

And the forces of Nature that worked destruction to 
their villages of skins and bark, the lightning that 
struck down their proud chiefs or their weakest child, 
unmindful of rank or of helplessness, these were natur- 
ally personified as evil spirits, under the rule of a gen- 
ius, only less powerful than the great spirit to whom 
they sent up their offerings. 

In regions where volcanoes and earthquakes occur 
the primitive people have the greater cause for believ- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 437 

ing in an evil agency that for its own vengeance wreaks 
sudden and widespread havoc among the children of 
men. The legends of these people are many and strik- 
ing. From the mythological creatures of the great 
volcanoes writers of a mystical turn of mind have made 
many weird and thrilling tales. Among the most artis- 
tic of these is a story by a French author, founded on 
the myth of the spirit that rules in the great crater of 
Pelee. It is as follows: 

The Legend of Mount Pelee.* 

" You who listen," began old Catherine, bringing 
her stool nearer the fire, " you who listen, large and 
small, do not forget that this is a true story, true as 
God's own, this story of Big Sonson who was burned 
by the spirit of the mountain. My mother, as you all 
know, was old enough to have seen this with her own 
eyes." 

Outside, a fresh breeze was blowing from the round- 
ed sides of Mount Pelee, laden with the strong odor of 
the woods well known to those who have traveled in 
the West Indies. 

In the dark, blue sky, where only the largest stars 
were visible, the moon shone brightly. Large mov- 
ing shadows played to and fro, at the foot of every 
tree. Yonder, stretching to the left, lay the City of 
St. Pierre, pleasing and pretty, with its craggy hills, 
its red roofed houses, climbing over each other up the 
mountain, and the sharp steeples of her three churches. 

We were all anxious to hear the story of Le Grand 



* By M. Rizon. Translated by Mme. E. Fletiry Robinson. 



438 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Sonson, which none of us had ever heard. The sing- 
ing of the kettle alone disturbed the silence. 

" It was a long time ago on the Habitation Potiche," 
murmured Catherine, as if speaking to herself. 

" My grandmother knew Big Sonson as I know you, 
for she lived at the Habitation, where the master had 
given her a cabin. 

" In exchange, my grandmother was to clean the 
lawn in front of the house. 

" As she was already very old, she spent the whole 
morning at this task, and at noon she always found in 
the kitchen some good bit which she carried away in 
her calabash. 

" Ah ! Mr. Beauregard was a good master ! Yes, and 
his son, Mr. Loulou ! ' Ti-maitre/ as we called him. 

" There was also Mamselle Mayotte, Mr. Loulou's 
sister. A pretty young girl, who played the piano so 
beautifully and was so good, so kind to the unfortunate. 

" She had a trusty maid, a young negress called Ti- 
tine. 

" Wherever Mile. Mayotte went, Titine accompanied 
her. You ought to have seen them, on Sunday, when 
they went to mass, in the large four-seated carriage 
drawn by two beautiful American mules! 

" Ah ! Titine was also very pretty, with her red skirt, 
white chemisette and a little silk handkerchief around 
her neck! 

" Well, Le Grand Sonson fell in love with this pretty 
negress, so much so that he could neither eat, drink 
or sleep. 

" When his work was finished in the evening he 
stayed in his cabin instead of going to play at ' toutilles ' 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 439 

with the other hands. He remained there alone, 
thoughtful and sad, smoking his pipe and imagining he 
saw in the smoke the seductive form of pretty Titine. 

" Finally, one Saturday night, he could stand it no 
longer, and decided to speak the next day to her who 
had stolen his heart, to tell her his love and propose to 
marry her. 

" Their meeting took place in the servant's hall, after 
the master's dinner. 

" Grand Sonson had dressed for the occasion. A 
shirt of blue linen with starched collar, grey trousers 
elegantly turned up, a belt of red flannel wound six 
times around his body, and on his head one of those 
wide brimmed hats, trimmed with a red ribbon. 

" No shoes. But he was not the only one at the 
Habitation who did not own these leather bonds, that 
cause so much suffering to those unused to them. 

" Besides, Titine had none either! 

" Titine was eating the leg of a chicken left by her 
mistress, on a little table set apart. 

" The other servants were eating at the other end of 
the room, talking pleasantly. 

" The coming of Sonson, who did not belong to the 
house servants, created a sensation. 

"'Well! Sonson/ cried a small negro employed as 
stable boy, ' are you coming to help me groom Colibri.' 

" ' Keep quiet, Ti-Yean,' said the cook, ' Mr. Sonson 
is too much in fear of Colibri for that, and he would 
spoil his clothes. See how fine he is ! ' 

"A burst of laughter greeted this joke, but Sonson 
came forward to the center of the hall. 

" 'Good day, everybody!' he said looking around. 



440 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

" His eyes spied Mile. Mayotte's maid and he went 
to her. 

" ' Titine,' he whispered. 

An astonished look was the only answer of the pretty 
girl, and looking down again, she continued to eat, as 
if nothing had happened. 

" The others looked at each other curiously. 

" ' Mamzelle Titine,' repeated the unfortunate lover, 
taking off his hat. 

" ' What is the matter? ' asked Titine turning to him. 

" ' I want to speak with you/ he said painfully. 

" ' Well, I am listening, Grand Sonson.' 

" ' It is to tell you to tell you ' 

" He could not say it. The poor fellow had pre- 
sumed too much. 

"'What?' asked Titine, who seeing herself ob- 
served by the other servants, was quite nervous. 

"Then, speaking quickly, he said in a low voice: 

" ' If you will, I shall speak to the master about be- 
ing married, because I think you are very pretty, 
Mamzelle Titine.' 

" He had dropped his hat and pressed his hand on 
his chest in a comical way. 

" For a time, the young negress shook with laugh- 
ter and all the servants rose and came near Titine and 
her lover. 

' What is the matter,' they all cried. 
' Grand Sonson wants to marry me,' she cried, still 
laughing. 

' It was for this that he dressed so fine,' spitefully 
spoke the cook who had never had a proposal. 

" ' You are too big for one wife, Sonson, my friend,' 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 441 

said Ti-Jean, ' you must ask the master for two, at 
least/ 

" There was great fun, all laughed loud, splitting 
their sides. 

" ' First of all/ said Titine, seriously, ' I do not love 
you, Mr. Sonson, then I do not want to leave my mis- 
tress, and then you have no beard/ 

" Every one looked at Sonson's smooth face. Did 
he blush? No one could tell, but he picked up his hat 
and left, murmuring: 

" ' All right/ 

" Several weeks passed, and like all unrequited love, 
Sonson's love increased with time. 

" And when the disdainful one passed by his cabin, 
a pain shot through his heart, a pain caused by his re- 
jected love and the mockery he had borne yonder, that 
Sunday in the kitchen when he had made bold to speak. 

" Little by little, in this primitive soul, entered a de- 
sire for vengeance that slowly took possession of him. 

" ' Yes/ he said to himself during his evening mus- 
ings, ' I shall force her to love me, whether willing or 
not! I shall marry her! And the others shall no 
longer laugh/ 

" Then he thought he would go to Goue-Goue, the 
well known conjurer, whom every one feared because 
he brought evil to all. 

" This Goue-Goue, an old yellow negro, was, in real- 
ity, the greatest poisoner in the island. He lived in 
a cave near the top of Mount Pelee, yonder near 
' Trianon/ 

" His master, the owner of Trianon, had him arrested 
and brought to the Habitation several times, but the 



442 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

old fellow always escaped after poisoning some ani- 
mal, horse or ox. 

" Tired of the struggle, he had been let alone. He 
lived in a cave, from the fruits of his thefts, vegetables 
and other eatables brought by those who came to con- 
sult him. 

" One evening when his task was done Big Sonson 
started to go and ask the conjurer's advice. 

" After having accepted the sweet potatoes and piece 
of codfish Titine's lover had brought, Goue-Goue asked 
his visitor to tell his story. 

" ' I understand,' he said slowly when Sonson had 
spoken, ' but what you ask is very difficult, and per- 
haps you will give up your idea when I tell you what I 
need to compose the philter you want.' 

" ' Speak anyway, grumbled Sonson. 

" ' I must have the heart of a white rooster, the heart 
of a sucking pig, and the heart of a little child.' 

" ' What ! ' said Sonson, horrified. 

" ' And,' coolly continued Goue-Goue, ' as she whom 
you love is a negress, it must not be the heart of a 
negro child, the philter would be worthless/ 

" ' Then,' said Sonson discouraged, * it is impossible! 
I might kill a pig and a rooster to bring you their 
hearts, but a child! Oh!' 

" i Who says you must do it/ cried Goue-Goue, with 
a gesture of impatience. ' Bring me the child, the 
rooster and the pig, and I will do the work myself, but 
you shall pay me.' 

" ' How can I pay you? ' asked the poor fellow. ' You 
know we negroes have no money.' 

" ' For one year, every Sunday, you can bring me 



443 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

provisions, that's all. You can easily procure the two 
animals I ask, there are plenty at your master's. As 
for the child, it will be easy enough. The Caribbeans, 
who live to the south of the island, in a little village 
of straw huts, leave the children for old women to 
watch, from Saturday evening until Sunday night, to 
go and sell their fruit and vegetables in St. Pierre. You 
have but to take one, no matter how small, he will 
do.' 

" Three hours after this conversation Big Sonson, 
lying in his cabin, was musing over the conjurer's 
words. During the remainder of the week he fought 
against the horrible idea of stealing a child to be killed 
by Goue-Goue who would take his heart. 

" Saturday came, Sonson still hesitated to commit 
the crime the old yellow negro had ordered. Just that 
evening, Mile. Mayotte, accompanied by Titine passed 
by the cabins to visit the sugaries at work. 

" Seated on his door step Sonson was smoking and 
dreaming, when he saw the young negress point him 
out to her mistress. Both went on, laughing. 

" This was the last drop in the bucket for the poor 
wretch. 

" Driven to despair by this mocking laugh, he hesi- 
tated no longer, and soon after left the Habitation. 

" At dawn he arrived at the conjuror's, carrying a 
little child in his arms. 

" Favored by the light of the moon a few hours suf- 
ficed to perfect his plan and carry its fruit to Goue- 
Goue. 

" What took place between these two men during the 



444 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

following morning? What diabolical practices did 
they perform? No one ever knew. 

" But it happened that just at the hour of noon a thick 
column of smoke and fire which lasted until evening 
was seen to rise from the mountain top. 

" It was the spirit of the mountain, the protector 
and creator of the good Caribbeans who avenged the 
death of one of their sons, throwing over the murder- 
ers the breath of his lungs. 

" The next day and the following days Big Sonson 
was not seen at the Habitation. The master thought 
he had run away, and had him hunted, but in vain. 

"Finally, it was told by the Caribbeans that a child 
of theirs had been stolen Saturday night, the night be- 
fore Sonson disappeared, and some women who had 
seen him had recognized Titine's lover. 

" It was thought that the wretch had gone to Goue- 
Goue for some terrible and malign influence and that 
both were burned by the mountain's fire. 

" RIZON." 

The people of Hawaii are a peculiarly simple and 
gentle people. They live in a climate the most salu- 
brious, and until the Saxon race emigrated to the island 
and introduced modern customs and trade, they lived 
an ideal life. Their wants were few, their natures 
cheerful and kindly, and their trust in the continual 
supply of fruits sufficient for their food never betrayed. 
Only one fear possessed them. The crater of Mt. Pelee 
reared its giant head above the villages on the sea- 
shore and its deadly breath was likely at any time to 
be blown over the island to the destruction of thou- 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 445 

sands. One of the legends of these people was to the 
effect that a spirit in form of a woman dwelt in the 
crater watching continually over the native people. 
This spirit would rise at any time to destroy strangers 
who should come to the island with evil intentions 
against the natives. Out of this legend was woven 
the following story: 

The Avenging Spirit of Pali.* 

A young Englishman stood on the deck of a sailing 
vessel coming into the harbor of Honolulu. He had 
been ranching in the wilds of Australia for three years, 
and was making his first return to the land of his birth, 
where a pair of blue eyes were waiting to give him a 
lover's welcome. 

The vessel was several days overdue, and his brow 
clouded when he was told that the American ship which 
transferred the Australian passengers had sailed the 
day before. That meant a month or more in this out- 
of-the-way island. The man paced the deck and said 
unkind things of fate. 

Down in the blue water about the ship half a hun- 
dred brown-skinned boys sported like so many por- 
poises, now standing in the water with hands out- 
stretched, ready to catch any trifle flung to them, now 
floating motionless on the waves, now diving for a coin 
thrown into the sea and bringing it to the surface with 
a cry of triumph. On the wharf a group of women and 
young girls waited with baskets of flowers and fruits. 

" Sunshine and color enough, certainly," mused the 



* Written by Charles Eugene Banks. Copyrighted by the Daily Story Pub- 
lishing Co. 



4±6 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

Englishman. " A day or two of this wouldn't be bad; 
but a month " 

He passed to the wharf, gave his bag to a native boy 
and followed him into the town. They passed strange 
little shops where sleepy-eyed Mongolians and fat na- 
tive women sat, while half-breed children played in the 
doorways, babbling in the musical language of the 
island. 

He passed the day on the veranda of the quaint little 
hotel, inhaling the fragrance of the vines and flowers. 
Luscious mangoes, figs, guavas and tamarinds were 
within reach of his hand; tall palms and cocoanuts in 
the distance bowed with the slight breeze, as if giving 
him honorable welcome to this paradise. The low 
drone of numerous insects, the lazy hum of bees and 
the soft atmosphere soothed him, and he wondered 
dreamily if it would not be pleasant to stay here al- 
ways. Then a pair of blue eyes looked at him accus- 
ingly out of the distance and he grew homesick. 

That night there was a ball in the hotel, given in 
honor of the Jamestown, an American man-of-war ly- 
ing in the harbor. A native band played weird minor 
airs, beautiful women and handsome men in uniform 
laughed, danced and flirted as they might have done in 
any city of the old world. But, somehow, nervous 
American gaiety seemed out of harmony with the soft 
voluptuousness of this tropic isle. Then the perfume 
of a jasmine flower, linked with the low notes of mel- 
low laughter, drifted down the moonlight air, there 
was the rustle of silken skirts, the flash of a pair of 
soft dark eyes and he knew the queen of fairy land 
had come. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 447 

An elderly man, with a slight, girlish figure clinging 
lightly to his arm, stopped at his side. 

" Pardon me," he said in good English, as he lightly 
brushed something from the young man's shoulder. 
" A centipede. You need not be alarmed. They are 
harmless, unless angered." 

The young man bowed his thanks. He was startled, 
not at the thought of the insect, but at the beauty of 
the girl. 

" It seems there are still disagreeable things in the 
Garden of Eden/' he replied, his eyes upon the fair 
creature looking up at him with innocent curiosity. 
" Everything here is so beautiful," he continued, hur- 
riedly, to hide his boldness. " You see, I am a stranger 
among you. My name is Crampton. I am on my 
way from Australia to England. We missed the ship 
for America and I must await her return." 

The other extended his hand. " My name is Brick- 
wood. Mr. Crampton, my daughter, Emaline." A 
soft, musical voice acknowledged the introduction, 
while dark, velvety eyes looked shyly into his. Then 
some one came to claim her for a promised waltz and 
she floated away, leaving the fragrance of jasmine trail- 
ing behind her. 

The two men lighted cigars and talked. Crampton 
told enough of his affairs to win Brickwood's confi- 
dence. The elder man had settled on the island when 
it had few white occupants, had married a full-blooded 
native woman, the daughter of a chief. He was now 
postmaster. He spoke of his daughter with deep ten- 
derness. She had been educated at St. Andrews' Pri- 
ory, a school in charge of three English women, nuns 



US THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

of culture and refinement. But she was just a simple 
native child, after all, he said, and he liked her so. 

Long after the dancers had departed Crampton sat 
on the veranda, puffing clouds of smoke into the feath- 
ery moonlight, and thinking of a beautiful girl with 
bronze skin, gowned in soft silk and crepe, her only 
ornament a crown of jasmine flowers, the odor of which 
still lingered with him. He had accepted an invita- 
tion from her father to dine at their cottage the next 
day, and he longed for the morrow that he might see 
her again. She seemed a part of the music and moon- 
light of the new, delightful world. For the first time 
in years he retired that night without looking at the 
portrait in the back of his watch. 

Into a vine-clad arbor of roses Crampton passed to 
be welcomed by the vision of the previous evening, 
Again he drank in the odor of the jasmine flower, again 
he wandered in elysium, entranced by the luster of 
those fawn-like eyes, again he heard the caressing 
tones of that flute-like voice. He was as one dazed 
by some strange spell, having its birth in a beauty new 
to him. But when her mother came into the room he 
felt a sudden shock, as though he had fallen from a 
height. She was an enormous woman, dark copper 
in color, with irregular features, deep, luminous eyes, 
a broad, flat nose and straight black hair. She wore 
but one garment, a loose robe of bright red silk. Could 
this be the mother of the beautiful creature who had 
so enraptured him? There was no resemblance save 
in her voice, which was low and mellow like that of 
the girl. She sang native songs, thrumming an ac- 
companiment on a small instrument, half guitar, half 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 449 

banjo. One of these songs, a wild, weird chant, moved 
the Englishman so that he asked for an interpretation 
of it. She told him it was the spirit song of the Pali. 
Many years ago there were several tribes on the island. 
They were continually at war with each other. Finally 
two great chiefs formed all the people into two armies 
and went out to battle for supremacy. The struggle 
was long and bloody. Many thousands were slain. 
At last Kamehameha defeated the followers of Oahua 
and drove them up the Newauna Valley to the top of 
the crater of Pali. On this mountain the last battle 
was fought and the Oahua and all his followers were 
driven or thrown over the cliff. After the great slaugh- 
ter a mist arose and began to fall like tears on the 
dead. It had never ceased. And in this mist the 
spirit of Pali, the protecting spirit of the natives, has 
her home. When any one wrongs a descendant of a 
chieftain's line the spirit arises out of the mist and 
wreaks speedy vengeance. 

While she recounted this legend the woman seemed 
to be inspired. Her immense body swayed back and 
forth in time to her words, her half-closed eyes burned 
with deep fires. Crampton felt his blood chill in his 
veins. The story fascinated him. It seemed to have 
some personal equation, to be in some subtle manner 
linked with his own future. He left the house his 
brain in a whirl. The beauty and gentleness of the 
daughter contrasted so vividly with the wild savagery 
of the mother. And the wild chant that had so trans- 
formed her still sounded in his ears. He was half re- 
solved to break off the acquaintance. But as he turned 
down the long veranda a spray of jasmine fell upon his 



450 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

shoulder and he caught the soft " aloha " which the 
girl had already taught him was the lovers' greeting 
and parting salutation. The spirit of the Pali faded 
from his mind and he fell asleep that night with the 
memory of that musical message whispering to his 
heart. 

Time braided the days into ropes of flowers for 
Crampton. The languor of the climate stole into his 
blood and lulled him to sweet security. With Ema- 
line he roamed about the island, enraptured with its 
beauty and his love of her. The picture of the blue- 
eyed Saxon girl in the back of his watch was forgot- 
ten. England with its turgid civilization seemed far 
away, unreal. He was intoxicated with his own 
thoughts. This half-wild, impulsive creature, who 
clung to him with such simple faith-, was so in har- 
mony with the surroundings, so much a part of the 
flowery little kingdom in the blue Pacific, that he could 
not separate her from it, nor himself from either. It 
was as if he had always lived this indolent dream life. 
They walked and rode and swam together. She 
taught him the liquid love words of her people, which 
was like the music of shallow waters rippling over peb- 
bles. Sometimes they wandered to the summit of Pali 
and watched the misty tears falling into the depths 
where slept the heroes of an almost forgotten race. 
The place had a strange attraction for him, and some- 
times he coaxed the girl into repeating the legend. 
But to her light heart the tragic tale held no charms. 
She was like a fawn that loves to play in the sunlight, 
without thought of the past or the future. He was 
sufficient to her. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 451 

But one day there came a vessel into the harbor and 
he awoke. His days of drifting were over. He must 
choose between ancestral home in a civilized country 
and this half-barbaric existence; take up the duties 
and burdens of activity, or embrace inaction; become 
for good and all a drone in the busy hive of the world's 
life. His Saxon blood rebelled at a future so cheap, 
so unimportant. It was a struggle, but his decision 
was made. 

It was late in the afternoon. Crampton and Ema- 
line had wandered far over the island, lingering in the 
flowery nooks that companionship had made dear to 
them. They stood now in the shadow of a palm half 
way up the crater of Pali. The sun, a chariot of fire, 
was rolling down toward the far-stretched line of the 
blue Pacific. In the harbor lay the ship that was to 
sail in the morning; the ship that was to put two 
oceans between them. He told her as they stood 
there; told her with the calm, steel-like tones of the 
Anglo-Saxon when he has to overcome himself. His 
face was drawn and white, but there was no tremor in 
his voice. He told her all, his duty, his prospects, even 
his engagement to the blue-eyed girl. When he had 
concluded she stood like a flower over which has passed 
the hot breath blown from a desert. 

" Aloha nue loa oei," she murmured. " We are 
one. I live not but in you. You are all my life. I 
love you." 

He would have answered her, but no words came to 
him. Like two statues of grief they stood in the soft 
sunlight. 

Then suddenly from above they heard a hissing 



452 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

sound. Out of the great mouth of Pali came a breath 
of steam that spread over their heads like a great fan. 
And in the center of it stood a dark cloud in shape like 
a woman. Above them it hovered, reaching out long, 
sinuous arms. 

"The spirit! The spirit of Pali!" cried the girl, 
sinking to the ground and hiding her face from the 
light. 

Crampton stood for a moment transfixed with hor- 
ror. Again he saw the old woman, the mother of 
Emaline, as she recited the weird legend, " When any- 
one wrongs a descendant of a chieftain's line the spirit 
rises out of the mist to wreak speedy vengeance." The 
words rang in his ears like a clarion. He turned 
away with a shudder. Then the materialism of his 
race came to his rescue. He caught up the girl in his 
arms and ran down the declivity toward the sea. 
Glancing back he saw the shadow following them. On 
he plunged, an awful fear taking possession of him. 
He heard the hissing as of a great serpent behind him. 
Loose stones gave way under his feet and plunged 
down into the placid waters, cooing softly to the shore. 
Branches and briars tore at his flesh and retarded his 
speed. But he struggled on with his precious burden, 
fearing now to look behind. At last he reached the 
shore and plunged into the sea. Yet the mist pursued 
him and the dark figure bent ominously over their 
heads. Out, out into the sea he struggled. The girl, 
revived by the waters, kissed his cheek and murmured, 
" Aloha." The surf lifted them on its kindly bosom 
and bore them forward. Another swell, and yet an- 
other, and to one standing upon the sands they would 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 453 

have been but a tiny speck on the distant blue. Then 
the mist with the black shadow in its center lifted and 
whirled about, returning to Pali. The spirit was 
avenged. But, clasped in each others' arms, the lovers 
drifted out to where none but God dwells and where 
love is the password to eternal bliss. 

The earthquake of Lisbon, 1755, with the destructive 
tidal wave that followed it, came near plunging Eng- 
land into atheism. Pope and the poets, together with 
the leaders of the church had convmced rural England, 
which was always religious England, that everything 
was for the best. Then came the Lisbon earthquake. 
And the lingering disciples of Hobbes who said that all 
men were born enemies, arose and shouted, What pur- 
pose has God served by this slaughter of innocent wom- 
en and children ? And people who had never questioned 
His glory or His power? This question seemed so per- 
tinent, was so hawked about in pamphlets, that at one 
time it seemed that the whole of England was on the 
verge of atheism. It required all the force of the 
church, all the persuasion of the great preachers, all of 
the rhetoric of apostolic enthusiasm to swing the king- 
dom back into her wonted orbit. On the other hand 
it is pointed out by the historian Buckle that in coun- 
tries where there are earthquakes there is always more 
religious awe. But Achille Loria, the greatest of Ital- 
ian thinkers on economics, points out the fact that in 
southern countries where the forces of nature have 
been least overcome by progress and invention all seis- 
mic disturbances are looked upon as a direct wrath of 
the Creator. Hence, in such countries God has been 



454 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

the God of terror rather than the God of mercy, while 
in the more progressive North he has been the God 
of love. 

The first description written by an eye-witness of a 
volcano in action was by the younger Pliny. This 
was the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, A. D. 79, which com- 
pletely destroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculan- 
eum. In this eruption the elder Pliny lost his life. 
His nephew, who was with him at the time, gives a 
detailed account of his uncle's behavior during the 
awful rain of ashes and lava which lasted for three 
days, during which time the whole country was plunged 
in utter darkness. 

The account of this eruption is not only valuable as 
the first authentic account of such a tremendous spec- 
tacle, but it is a model of descriptive writing. From 
it can be gathered, too, the best estimate of the effect 
of the stoic philosophy on its greatest exemplars. 
Pliny stands in the presence of that terrible cataclysm, 
calm and serene, looking with keen eye upon the emo- 
tions aroused in his companions. He notes with rare 
discretion the appearance of the surrounding country, 
and describes with wonderful calm the terrifying as- 
pects of the active volcano. The letter written to 
Cornelius Tacitus is as follows: 

" Your request that I would send you an account of 
my uncle's death, in order to transmit a more exact 
relation of it to posterity, merits my acknowledg- 
ments; for, if the glorious circumstances which occa- 
sioned this accident shall be celebrated by your pen, 
the manner of his exit will be rendered forever illus- 
trious. 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 455 

" Notwithstanding he perished by a misfortune, 
which, as it involved at the same time a most beauti- 
ful country in ruins, and destroyed so many populous 
cities, seems to promise him an everlasting remem- 
brance; notwithstanding he has himself composed 
many works which will descend to the latest times; 
yet, I am persuaded, the mentioning of him in your 
immortal writings will greatly contribute to eternize 
his name. 

" Happy I deem those to be whom the gods have 
distinguished with the abilities either of performing 
such actions as are worthy to be related, or of relating 
them in a manner worthy of being read; but doubly 
happy are they who are blessed with both these un- 
common endowments; and in that number my uncle, 
as his own writings and your history will prove, may 
be justly ranked. 

" It is with extreme willingness, therefore, I execute 
your commands; and I should, indeed, have claimed 
the task if you had not enjoined it. He was at that 
time with his fleet under his command, at Misenum. 
(In the Gulf of Naples.) On the 24th of August, about 
one in the afternoon, my mother desired him to ob- 
serve a cloud which appeared of a very unusual size 
and shape. He had just returned from enjoying the 
benefit of the sun, and, after bathing in cold water, 
and taking a slight repast, was retired to his study; 
he immediately arose, and went out upon an eminence, 
from whence he might more distinctly view this very 
singular phenomenon. It was not at that distance 
discernible from what mountain this cloud issued, but 



4:56 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

it was found afterward to proceed from Vesuvius. 
(About six miles from Naples.) 

* I cannot give you a more exact description of its 
figure than by resembling it to that of a pine-tree; for 
it shot up a great height in the form of a tall trunk, 
which spread at the top into a sort of branches; occa- 
sioned, I suppose, either that the force of the internal 
vapor which impelled the cloud upwards, decreased 
in strength as it advanced, or that the cloud, being 
pressed back by its own weight, expanded itself in the 
manner I have mentioned; it appeared sometimes 
bright, and sometimes dark and spotted, as it was 
either more or less impregnated with earth and cin- 
ders. This uncommon appearance excited my uncle's 
philosophical curiosity to take a nearer view of it. He 
accordingly ordered a light vessel to be prepared, and 
offered me the liberty, if I thought proper, to attend 
him. I rather chose to continue the employment in 
which I was engaged ; for it happened that he had given 
me a certain writing to copy. 

" As he was going out of the house with his tablets 
in his hand he was met by the mariners belonging to 
the galleys stationed at Retina, from which they had 
fled in the utmost terror; for the port being situated at 
the foot of Vesuvius, they had no other way to escape 
than by the sea. They conjured him, therefore, not 
to proceed and expose his life to imminent and inevit- 
able danger. In compliance with their advice he 
changed his original intention, and, instead of gratify- 
ing his philosophical spirit, he resigned it to the more 
magnaminous principle of aiding the distressed. With 
this view he ordered the fleet immediately to put to 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 457 

sea, and went himself on board with the intention of 
assisting not only Retina, but the several other towns 
which stood thick upon that beautiful coast. 

" Hastening to the place, therefore, from whence 
others fled with the utmost terror, he steered his course 
direct to the point of danger, and with so much calm- 
ness and presence of mind, as to be able to make and 
dictate his observations upon the appearance and prog- 
ress of that dreadful scene. He was now so near the 
mountain that the cinders, which grew thicker and 
hotter the more he advanced, fell into the ships, to- 
gether with pumice stones and black pieces of burning 
rock; they were likewise in danger, not only of being 
aground by the sudden retreat of the sea, but also from 
the vast fragments which rolled down from the moun- 
tains and obstructed all the shore. 

" Here he stopped to consider whether he should 
return back; to which the pilot advising him, ' For- 
tune/ he said, 'befriends the brave; steer to Pompon- 
inus.' Pomponianus was then at Stabie (now called 
Castel e Mar di Stabia, in the Gulf of Naples), sepa- 
rated which the sea, after several insensible windings, 
forms upon that shore. Pomponianus had already sent 
his baggage on board; for though he was not at that 
time in actual danger, yet, being within the view of it, 
and, indeed, extremely near, he was determined, if it 
should in the least increase, to put to sea as soon as 
the wind should change. It was favorable, however, 
for carrying my uncle to Pomponianus, whom he found 
in the greatest consternation ; and embracing him with 
tenderness, he encouraged and exhorted him to keep 
up his spirits. The more to dissipate his fears he or- 



458 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

dered his servants, with an air of unconcern, to carry 
him to the baths; and, after having bathed, he sat down 
to supper with great, or at least (what is equally he- 
roic) with all the appearance of cheerfulness. 

" In the meanwhile, the fire from Vesuvius flamed 
forth from several parts of the mountain with great 
violence; which the darkness of the night contributed 
to render still more visible and dreadful. But my 
uncle, in order to calm the apprehensions of his friend, 
assured him it was only the conflagrations of the vil- 
lages which the country people had abandoned. After 
this he retired to rest, and it is most certain he was so 
little discomposed as to fall into a deep sleep; for, be- 
ing corpulent, and breathing hard, the attendants in 
the antechamber actually heard him snore. 

' The court that led to his (my uncle's) apartment 
being now almost filled with stones and ashes, it would 
have been impossible for him, if he had continued there 
any longer, to have made his way out; it was thought 
proper, therefore, to awaken him. He got up and 
joined Pomponianus, and the rest of the company, who 
had not been sufficiently unconcerned to think of go- 
ing to bed. They consulted together whether it would 
be most prudent to trust to the houses, which now 
shook from side to side with frequent and violent con- 
cussions, or flee to the open fields, where the calcined 
stones and cinders, though levigated indeed, yet fell 
in large showers and threatened them with instant 
destruction. 

" In this distress they resolved for the fields as the 
less dangerous situation of the two ; a resolution which, 
while the rest of the company were hurried into by 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 459 

their fears, my uncle embraced upon cool and delib- 
erate consideration. They went out, then, having pil- 
lows tied upon their heads with napkins; and this was 
their whole defense against the storm of stones that 
fell around them. 

" It was now day everywhere else, but there a deeper 
darkness prevailed than in the blackest night; which, 
however, was in some degree dissipated by torches and 
other lights of various kinds. They thought it expedi- 
ent to go down farther upon the shore, in order to ob- 
serve if they might safely put out to sea: but they 
found the waves still running extremely high and 
boisterous. There my uncle, having drunk a draught 
or two of cold water, laid himself down upon a sail 
cloth which was spread for him; when immediately 
the flames, preceded by a strong smell of sulphur, dis- 
persed the rest of the company, and obliged him to 
rise. He raised himself up, with the assistance of two 
of his servants, and instantly fell down dead; suffo- 
cated, I conjecture, by some gross and noxious vapor, 
as having always had weak lungs, and being frequent- 
ly subject to a difficulty of breathing. 

" As soon as it was light again, which was not till 
the third day after this melancholy accident, his body 
was found entire, and without any marks of violence, 
exactly in the same posture in which he fell, and look- 
ing more like a man asleep than dead." 

This letter seems to have aroused the curiosity of 
Tacitus to be more fully informed concerning the Ve- 
suvius eruption, for it was not long before Pliny sent 
another communication, giving a far more complete 
description of the volcano, and its effect upon the peo- 



400 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

pie and the surrounding country. This letter is in the 
same simple style, but the power of its description has 
not been equaled since that time, nearly two thousand 
years ago. It might have been taken almost literally 
for a description of the recent eruption of this great 
volcano. Pliny writes as follows to Tacitus: 

" The letter which, in compliance with your request, 
I wrote you concerning the death of my uncle, has 
raised, it seems, your curiosity to know what terrors 
and dangers attended me while I continued at Mis- 
enum; for there, I think, the account in my former 
broke off: 

" i Though my shocked soul recoils, my tongue shall 
tell/ 

" My uncle having left us, I continued the employ- 
ment which prevented my going with him, till it was 
time to bathe; after which I went to supper and then 
fell into a short and unquiet sleep. There had been, 
during many days before, some shocks of an earth- 
quake, which the less alarmed us as they are frequent 
in Campania; but they were so particularly violent that 
night, that they not only shook everything about us, 
but seemed, indeed, to threaten total destruction. My 
mother flew to my chamber, where she found me ris- 
ing in order to awaken her. We went out into a 
small court belonging to the house, which separated 
the sea from the buildings. As I was at this time but 
eighteen years of age, I know not whether I should 
call my behavior, in this perilous conjuncture, courage 
or rashness; but I took up Livy, and amused myself 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 461 

with turning over that author, and even making ex- 
tracts from him, as if I had been perfectly at my ease. 

" While we were in this situation, a friend of my 
uncle's, who was just come from Spain to pay him a 
visit, joined us, and observing me sitting by my mother 
with a book in my hand, reproved her patience, and my 
security; nevertheless, I still went on with my author. 

" It was now morning, but the light was exceedingly 
faint and languid; the buildings all around us tottered, 
and, though we stood upon open ground, yet, as the 
place was narrow and confined, there was no remaining 
without imminent danger; we therefore resolved to 
leave the town. The people followed us in the utmost 
consternation, and (as to a mind distracted with ter- 
ror, every suggestion seems more prudent than its 
own) pressed in great crowds about us in our way 
out. 

" Being advanced at a convenient distance from the 
houses, we stood still, in the midst of a most hazard- 
ous and tremendous scene. The chariots which we 
had ordered to be drawn out were so agitated back- 
ward and forward, though upon the most level ground, 
that we could not keep them steady, even by support- 
ing them with large stones. The sea seemed to roll 
back upon itself, and to be driven from its banks by 
the convulsive motion of the earth; it is certain, at least, 
the shore was considerably enlarged, and several sea 
animals were left upon it. 

" On the other side (of the bay) a black and dreadful 
cloud bursting with an igneous serpentine vapor, dart- 
ed out a long train of fire, resembling flashes of 
lightning, but much larger. Upon this, our Spanish 



462 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

friend, whom I mentioned before, addressing himself 
to my mother and me, with great warmth and earnest- 
ness: * If your brother and your uncle/ said he, 'is 
safe, he certainly wishes you may be so too; but if he 
is perished, it was his desire, no doubt, that you might 
both survive him; why, therefore, do you delay your 
escape a moment? ' We could never think of our own 
safety, we replied, while we were uncertain of his ; up- 
on which our friend left us, and withdrew from the 
danger with the utmost precipitation. 

" Soon afterward, the cloud seemed to descend, and 
cover the whole ocean; as, indeed, it certainly hid the 
island of Caprea (an island near Naples, now called 
Capri), and the promontory of Misenum. 

" My mother conjured me to make my escape at any 
rate, which, as I was young, I might easily effect; as 
for herself, she said, her age and corpulency rendered 
all attempts of that sort impossible; however, she 
would willingly meet death, if she could have the sat- 
isfaction of seeing that she was not the occasion of 
mine. But I absolutely refused to leave her, and, tak- 
ing her by the hand, I led her on; she complied with 
great reluctance, and not without many reproaches to 
herself for being the occasion of retarding my flight. 

" The ashes now began to fall upon us, though in no 
great quantity. I turned my head, and observed be- 
hind us a thick smoke, which came rolling after us like 
a torrent. I proposed, while we had yet any light, to 
turn out of the high road, lest she should be pressed to 
death in the dark by the crowd that followed us. 

" We had scarcely stepped out of the path when 
darkness overspread us, not like that of a cloudy night, 



THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 463 

or when there is no moon, but of a room when it is 
shut up, and all the lights are extinct. 

" Nothing, then, was to be heard but the shrieks of 
women, the screams of children, and the cries of men; 
some calling for their children, others for their par- 
ents, others for their husbands, and only distinguish- 
ing each other by their voices; one lamenting his own 
fate, another that of his family; some wishing to die, 
from the very fear of dying; some lifting their hands 
to the gods; but the greater part imagining that the 
last and eternal night was come, which was to destroy 
both the gods and the world together. Among these 
there were some who augmented the real terrors by 
imaginary ones, and made the frighted multitude false- 
ly believe that Misenum was actually in flames. 

" At length, a glimmering light appeared, which we 
imagined to be rather the forerunner of an approach- 
ing burst of flames (as in fact it was) than the return 
of day; however, the fire fell at a distance from us. 
Then again we were immersed in thick darkness, and 
a heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were 
obliged every now and then to shake off, otherwise 
we should have been overwhelmed and buried in the 
heap. 

" I might boast, that, during all this scene of hor- 
ror, not a sigh, or expression of fear, escaped from me, 
had not my support been founded on that miserable, 
though strong, consolation, that all mankind were in- 
volved in the same calamity, and that I imagined I was 
perishing with the world itself. 

" At last this terrible darkness was dissipated by de- 
grees, like a cloud, or smoke; the real day returned, 



464 THE SAN FRANCISCO DISASTER 

and even the sun appeared, though very faintly, and 
as when an eclipse is coming on. Every object that 
presented itself to our eyes (which were extremely 
weakened) seemed changed, being covered with white 
ashes as with deep snow. We returned to Misenum, 
where we refreshed ourselves as well as we could, and 
passed an anxious night between hope and fear; though, 
indeed, with a much larger share of the latter; for the 
earth still continued to shake, while several enthusi- 
astic persons ran wildly among the people, throwing 
out terrifying predictions, and making a kind of frantic 
sport of their own and their friends' wretched situa- 
tion. However, my mother and I, notwithstanding 
the danger we had passed, and that still threatened us, 
had no intention of leaving Misenum till we should 
receive some account of my uncle. 

" And now you will read this narrative without any 
view of inserting it in your history, of which it is by 
no means worthy; and, indeed, you must impute it to 
your own request, if it should appear not to deserve 
even the trouble of a letter/' 

Thus ends Pliny's account, at once the most com- 
plete humane and graphic ever written of such a terri- 
ble scene. 



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